HOUSTON AREA HOUSING COUNSELING AGENCY RECEIVES $328,000 GRANT TO HELP FAMILIES DEAL WITH MORTGAGE MODIFICATION AND MORTGAGE SCAMS
139 local housing counseling agencies & 23 intermediary agencies funded nationwide

FORT WORTH - Money Management International, Inc. (MMI), of Sugarland, was awarded $328,597 in an effort to help families keep their homes and avoid mortgage scams. Nationally, more than $10 million in housing counseling grants was distributed to 162 organizations. This is unspent funding from the 2010 appropriation that was re-competed and awarded to HUD-approved counseling agencies.

"The funding announced today is specifically earmarked to provide counseling assistance relating to mortgage modification, avoiding potential mortgage scams, and assisting victims of scams," said HUD Secretary Shaun
Donovan. "It is crucial that we support these agencies in helping struggling families do whatever is possible to avoid foreclosure without being victimized by so called mortgage "rescue" companies."

HUD is awarding $3 million to 139 local housing counseling agencies nationwide, and more than $7 million to 23
housing counseling intermediary agencies. These funds are designed to serve residents in the nation's top 100 metropolitan areas that are experiencing the worse foreclosure problems.

The funding is predominately for foreclosure prevention counseling, assistance with application to Federal and other mortgage modification and loss mitigation programs, and related outreach. It will also support outreach and
counseling efforts designed to identify and assist victims of mortgage modification scams, and report those cases to the applicable authorities.

HUD awards grants under the housing counseling program through a competitive process. Organizations that apply for grants must be HUD-approved and are subject to performance reviews to maintain their HUD-approved status.

MMI is a nonprofit community service organization that provides comprehensive housing counseling, professional financial guidance, counseling, community-wide educational programs, and debt management assistance. MMI and its family of agencies has over 45 years experience helping consumers regain financial control of their lives and has assisted more than 900,000 clients. The organization's housing counseling program meets its mission of improving
lives through financial education by providing comprehensive housing counseling services in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Services to be provided for this grant award include: mortgage delinquency/default counseling and education, while reporting alleged loan modification scams to the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network and the HUD Office of Inspector General. For more information, visit MMI's website at www.moneymanagement.org.

For a list of all grants, organized by state, visit HUD's website.
For summary of each grant, organized by state, visit HUD's website

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv.