WASHINGTON D.C.– This week, Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined 19 of their Senate colleagues in calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to undo dangerous policy changes made in the recently announced notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for housing counseling, which would drastically narrow the activities eligible for funding under HUD’s housing counseling program.
“The NOFO makes several alarming policy changes, chief among them being the removal of pre-purchase housing counseling from the list of eligible activities.” Pre-purchase counseling has been a cornerstone of HUD’s counseling program since 1968, created specifically to open the doors of homeownership to Americans who had long been shut out, and it remains just as essential today,” the senators wrote in a letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner. “For first-time and low- to moderate-income buyers, this guidance is often the difference between a sustainable investment and a financially devastating one. Housing counselors are a community-level guardrail, and eliminating their funding doesn’t make the need disappear — it simply strips counselors of the federal resources to meet it.”
The NOFO also places restrictions on post-purchase and delinquency counseling. While the NOFO lists these activities as eligible, reimbursement is restricted to government-backed mortgages – leaving homeowners with conventional mortgages facing delinquency or foreclosure without access to federally funded counseling.
All of this harm is compounded by the fact that the NOFO was release seven months later than usual, meaning housing counseling programs were left without any federal funds for over half a year already.
In addition to Senator Slotkin, the letter is signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-AZ), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jackie Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Read the full letter HERE.
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