Elimination of Housing Counseling Funds is a potential disaster
From the Newsletter of Marc H. Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League, April 19, 2011
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The continuing resolution that averted a shutdown of the federal government contains a potentially disastrous provision that would eliminate all funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Counseling Program. To scrap this valuable program in the midst of the foreclosure crisis is incomprehensible. Since 2009, HUD-approved housing counseling agencies have more than 4 million families with individual housing counseling. These programs have worked to prevent mortgage delinquency for 2.6 million households, helping more than 800,000 avoid foreclosure. At a time when the country is struggling mightily under the weight of mass foreclosures and broad economic uncertainty, the decision to dismantle the nation’s non-profit housing counseling infrastructure is simply bad public policy. Housing counseling, at root, is more than just a programmatic offering; it has come to reflect and embody a system of values for a country still debating how best to protect consumers from unscrupulous and predatory actors and help families to understand the costs, benefits and risks associated with homeownership. These draconian budget cuts are a major setback and increase, without doubt, the vulnerability of communities of color and the groups across the country that serve them. We will be working hard to restore the funding for housing counseling. Stay tuned for more!
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