HUD funding critical to help Californians find and keep housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded nearly $2 million in grants to 19 local organizations to help families and individuals in California with their housing needs and to prevent future foreclosures. HUD’s housing counseling grants, and the additional funding they leverage, will assist Californians find housing, make more informed housing choices, or keep their current homes.
“These grants are an essential tool to help families find suitable housing or to keep the homes they have,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “HUD-approved counseling agencies use this funding to support a wide range of services from assisting lower income persons to locate an affordable apartment to helping first-time homebuyers avoid unsustainable mortgages.”
“The HUD-approved housing counseling agencies are an invaluable resource to help families purchase their first homes,” said HUD Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal. “In 2012, we released two reports on the impact of HUD-approved housing counseling and in both, HUD found it significantly improves the likelihood homeowners can remain in their homes.”
HUD is awarding more than $38 million nationwide that will directly support the housing counseling services provided by 29 national and regional organizations, seven multi-state organizations, 22 State Housing Finance Agencies (SHFAs) and 232 local housing counseling agencies. In addition, HUD is awarding $2 million to three national organizations to train housing counselors who will receive the instruction and certification necessary to effectively assist families with their housing needs.
National and regional agencies distribute much of HUD’s housing counseling grant funding to community-based organizations that assist low- and moderate-income families to improve their housing conditions. In addition, these larger organizations help improve the quality of housing counseling services and enhance coordination among counseling providers.
Grant recipients utilize funding to address the full range of families’ housing counseling needs.
www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDgov, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD’s News Listserv.