HUD No. 00-325
Further Information:	For Release
In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-0685	Tuesday
Or contact your local HUD office	November 28, 2000

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CUOMO ANNOUNCES $6.5 MILLION IN HOUSING COUNSELING GRANTS TO PROMOTE HOMEOWNERSHIP AND COMBAT PREDATORY LENDING

WASHINGTON – As part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s on-going efforts to promote homeownership and combat predatory lending, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $6.5 million in housing counseling assistance grants to 12 national, regional and multi-state intermediary agencies.

The 12 intermediary agencies, Cuomo said, distribute the HUD funding to grassroots level affiliates and branches that provide low- and moderate-income individuals with advice about buying and owning a home. In addition, the intermediaries help improve the quality of housing counseling services and enhance coordination among housing counseling providers.

HUD’s housing counseling grants enable anyone -- current homeowners, prospective buyers or renters -- to get the counseling they need to improve their housing conditions and be responsible owners and renters. By improving the quality of renter and homeowner education, the competitive grants help families make better, more informed home purchases; improve their ability to budget for needed home expenses and regular mortgage or rent payments; and, make the lending process less frightening.

"These 12 grants will help take the mystery out of homeownership for thousands of Americans so that they, too, can be part of the American dream and own a home," Cuomo said, "They are another example of how HUD is working with non-profit groups and the housing industry to increase homeownership across the nation."

Housing counselors offer consumers advice and guidance on a wide variety of housing topics, ranging from providing information on the homebuying process and financing a home to personal budgeting and credit repair; from default assistance and foreclosure avoidance to fair housing rights; from meeting the responsibilities of tenancy to obtaining a home equity conversion mortgage.

The 12 HUD-approved intermediaries receiving grants are:

Catholic Charities USA	Alexandria,	VA	$572,409
Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association,	Boston,	MA	$418,143
National Association of Housing Partnerships,	Boston,	MA	$633,463
West Tennessee Legal Services, Inc.,	Jackson,	TN	$372,024
Housing Opportunities, Inc.,	McKeesport,	PA	$522,467
National Urban League,	New York,	NY	$563,201
National Association of Real Estate Brokers,	Oakland,	CA	$393,876
ACORN Housing Corporation,	Philadelphia,	PA	$597,474
National Foundation for Consumer Credit,	Silver Spring,	MD	$675,770
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation,	Washington,	DC	$670,086
National Council of La Raza,	Washington,	DC	$558,878
The Congress of National Black Churches,	Washington,	DC	$522,209

 

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

Attached are individual grant project summaries. They are also posted on the HUD website.

Housing Counseling Grants - Project Summaries

ALEXANDRIA, VA
Catholic Charities USA
$572,409
All 29 affiliates will continue providing housing counseling services that include: outreach services to increase the awareness of homeownership opportunities; homebuying education for first-time homebuyers and the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for eligible persons 62 or older. Catholic Charities USA is a religiously affiliated organization and its housing counseling program has been in existence since 1994.

BOSTON, MA
Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association
$418,143
CHAPA and its affiliates tailor their services to meet the needs of low and moderate income households in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. CHAPA’s counseling services cover all aspects of purchasing a home, post-purchase counseling and education which focuses on sustaining homeownership, delinquency and default counseling. In addition, CHAPA has conducted extensive outreach to low and moderate income households to participate in a homebuyer program by working with local churches, service organizations, government agencies and others concentrating their efforts on those people traditionally underserved in the homeownership market.

National Association of Housing Partnerships
$633,463
NAHP proposed to continue and expand the housing counseling activities in the area of: increasing homeownership among low- and moderate-income households, especially minority households and traditionally underserved populations to ensure that households have the information and support to maintain their homes and build equity for the future, and to support neighborhood stabilization and revitalization by increasing responsible single-family and multiplex homeownership.

JACKSON, TN
West Tennessee Legal Services, Inc.
$372,024
WTLS and its affiliates in conjunction with the MidSouth Project will provide comprehensive housing counseling services that will include: pre-purchase counseling to first-time homebuyers; counseling to persons 62 years and older on the availability of funds through Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM); pre-rental counseling with emphasis upon HUD and rural housing rent subsidy programs; promote awareness of and education concerning rights and remedies to persons who experience discriminatory housing practices; assist tenants and homeowners with meeting their responsibilities of tenancy and of homeownership.

McKEESPORT, PA
Housing Opportunities, Inc.
$522,467
HOI proposes to provide housing counseling agencies with resources to serve the unique housing needs of their community. HOI and its affiliates have counseling experience in family budgeting, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) eligibility and guidelines for senior citizens, loss mitigation, money management, foreclosure prevention, pre-purchase, and rental counseling.

NEW YORK, NY
National Urban League
$563,201
To assist in expanding homeownership opportunities, NUL and its affiliates will conduct interviews, information referral, hold two-hour homebuyer education seminars and provide 16 to 20 hours of individual pre-purchasing counseling sessions. Recently their Hartford Urban League along with several local banks have developed flexible underwriting criteria that enabled 300 loans to be made to low and moderate income residents in Hartford, CT. NUL is working with FannieMae to develop a mortgage instrument flexible enough to accommodate the lower income in other areas.

OAKLAND, CA
National Association of Real Estate Brokers
$393,876
NAREB proposes to educate individuals about the opportunities available for homeownership, the homebuyer process, prepare prospective homebuyers for the responsibilities of owning a home, offer information and support to homeowners in danger of losing their homes, and create networks and linkages between housing professionals that will insure increased homeownership among their targeted audience.

PHILADELPHIA, PA
Acorn Housing Corp.
$597,474
AHC has developed a program that targets low and moderate income communities in each of the cities it serves which will enable its affiliates to work closely with families and individuals to help them qualify for a new or refinance an existing mortgage, qualify for home improvement loans, mortgage or develop delinquency payment strategy.

SILVER SPRING, MD
National Foundation for Consumer Credit
$675,770
NFCC proposes to continue to provide comprehensive counseling and related services to meet the needs of local people in the communities that member affiliates serve, which will include: Homebuyer education; pre-purchase homeownership and post-purchase mortgage delinquency and default resolution; Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM); loss mitigation; outreach initiatives; renter assistance and budgeting and credit counseling.

WASHINGTON, DC
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp.
$670,086
NRC will provide program oversight, training and management while its 82 affiliates provide housing counseling which includes: homebuyer education; pre-purchase homeownership; post-purchase; mortgage delinquency and default resolution; marketing and outreach in targeted areas; special needs for senior citizens, renter assistance counseling and fair housing assistance.

National Council of La Raza
$558,878
NCLR proposes to continue to provide housing counseling to low- and moderate-income Hispanics who lack knowledge about the homeownership process and are unaware of the resources and programs that are available to first-time homebuyers.

The Congress of National Black Churches, Inc.
$522,209
To reach racial and ethnic minorities and individuals with disabilities as well as those historically underserved populations in urban and rural settings, CNBC proposes a counseling plan that will promote fair housing by removing barriers to information that deter many Americans from seeking, buying, insuring or maintaining a home in a neighborhood of their choice; improve the quality, effectiveness and availability of pre/post-purchase counseling and education by delivering the services within the communities most in need of help and foster a greater coordination among the local real estate brokers, lenders and providers of homeownership counseling and education services.

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