ICYMI: HUD Expands Counseling Services to Help Families Access Quality, Affordable Homes

Department provides funding, flexibility, and new tools to expand housing counseling for prospective homebuyers and renters.

WASHINGTON - Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been committed to broadening affordable avenues to homeownership for millions of families, particularly families of color and those from disadvantaged communities. As one of those options, HUD sponsors housing counseling agencies throughout the country to provide free or low-cost advice on issues such as buying your first home, renting, and avoiding foreclosure. Recently, HUD has provided new funds, flexibilities, and tools to expand housing counseling options to ensure families have access to the quality, affordable homes they deserve.

“Every day, hundreds of families use our free or low-cost housing counseling options to navigate crucial housing decisions like starting the homebuying process, avoiding foreclosure, and finding affordable rental options,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “Under this Administration, we have made incredible enhancements to invest in these programs, ensure they reach as many families as possible, and expand affordable opportunities for homeownership. Together, we will build accessible roads to this key tenant of the American Dream.”

Today, HUD appointed 11 key leaders to its Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee, helping shape the direction of its Housing Counseling Program and providing guidance on how to better serve prospective buyers, homeowners, and renters with their housing needs. This is just one of several recent announcements made to improve and expand housing counseling options:

• In September, HUD awarded $48 million to increase access to housing counseling services and strengthen the nation’s housing counseling workforce. These awards will advance these ongoing efforts at more than 160 HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, state housing finance agencies, educational institutions, and national, regional, multi-state, and non-profit organizations.
• Earlier in September, as part of the ongoing “Let’s Make Home the Goal” campaign, HUD launched a new partnership with Zillow to raise awareness of pre-purchase housing counseling designed to reach communities of color and break down systemic barriers to homeownership.
• HUD also modernized a rule which will allow HUD-approved housing counseling agencies to use virtual methods to broaden access and reach even more people seeking assistance.
• Earlier this year, HUD updated the Housing Counseling Program Handbook, which is now available in multiple languages to support the diverse communities HUD serves.

HUD’s housing counseling tools are used by more than 3,000 people on average each day. To locate a HUD-approved housing counseling agency nationwide, please visit www.hud.gov/findacounselor.

These housing counseling options are one of the ways HUD and the Administration are working to expand homeownership opportunities. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, HUD has supported nearly 2.3 million homebuyers, the vast majority of whom were buying a home for the first time. In 2023, HUD cut mortgage insurance premiums for all borrowers using a Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage financing to purchase or refinance a home. This policy helped more than 682,000 borrowers save an average of $876 annually, saving them nearly $600 million collectively in just the first year of their mortgages. HUD has also included positive rental history as a factor for an FHA-insured mortgage and changed how student loan debt is evaluating when obtaining a mortgage, expanding opportunities for homeownership for the families HUD serves.