This increased demand for foreclosure counseling has put a strain on housing counseling centers across the country. With little to no demand for pre-purchase counseling, counseling centers have had to internally reorganize their staff and services to meet the growing outside demands. The demand for foreclosure prevention has brought to the surface a few challenges of providing housing counseling services. All of the challenges stem from the main problem of the financial crisis the United States, and the world, are currently facing. While this has had many different affects on every aspect of the economy, families are being hit hardest in the rising costs of housing and transportation. These increased costs to families have given rise to the increased demand for housing, especially foreclosure, counseling services.
[...] These two examples prove how crucial money is in addressing the challenges facing housing counseling services. It is much easier for large corporations to receive large sums of money to help them meet their growing demands. However, for small community development centers, such as Southeast CDC, access to this type of money is not possible right now. Without more money, community development centers throughout the country cannot respond at the proper rate to the foreclosure crisis. More staff cannot be hired and properly trained, clients cannot be reached properly without increased marketing and outreach programs and all of these solutions to the challenges require one thing: money. [...]
[...] My desk is located in the front of the office allowing me to see all the clients coming in for their housing counseling appointments. In these last three and a half months I can remember seeing less than 5 clients coming in for pre-purchase counseling; all the other appointments were for foreclosure prevention counseling. Luckily for Southeast, their housing counselors (four counselors with 2 of them being bilingual) are trained in foreclosure prevention counseling. This means that Southeast has not had to incur the costs of training and/or hiring more housing counseling staff to meet the growing demand for foreclosure counseling as many other community development centers throughout the country have faced. [...]
[...] Department of Housing and Urban Development are ones that I see facing the housing counseling center where I have interned this semester, the Southeast Community Development Corporation. Key Policy Issues Relevant to Southeast Community Development Center and other Housing Counseling Centers: Brief Explanation One of the major challenges facing housing counseling services is the availability of housing counselors, specifically those trained to provide foreclosure counseling. The costs of training counselors and then keeping them on staff, especially for non-profit centers, are major challenges. [...]
[...] Housing counseling services need to be able to reach clients before the problem becomes too much for them to handle. While it is difficult for Southeast to reach more people without more money, they are trying their best to increase their presence in the neighborhood and throughout the city. The presentation of the PowerPoint to local large businesses will greatly increase Southeast's presence throughout the area. By being able to reach upwards of 250 people at various presentations, the services of Southeast will be spread throughout the company and the community. [...]
[...] However, the cost is becoming almost too much to bear for housing counseling services in continuing to provide their services free of charge. Alternative Approaches to Reaching the Client at the Right Time In dealing with the challenge of reaching clients at the right time, I think that nationally there needs to be increased marketing and awareness of these programs within cities. HUD could fund a national campaign promoting the importance of housing counseling, both before and after home purchase. [...]
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