News Release

Information by State  Print version

HUD ANNOUNCES $514,553.55 IN HOUSING COUNSELING GRANTS TO EIGHT AGENCIES IN MISSOURI
HUD funding critical to foreclosure prevention

KANSAS CITY, KS - Thousands of American families in Missouri will have a greater opportunity to find housing or keep the homes they have because of $514,553.55 in housing counseling grants to eight agencies in Missouri announced earlier this week by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston. The funding is part of $50 million awarded to nearly 400 national, state and local agencies across the country.

Housing counseling grants assist families in becoming first-time homeowners and remaining homeowners after their purchase. HUD-approved counseling agencies not only provide homeownership counseling, but also offer financial literacy training to renters and homeless individuals and families.

"These critical counseling grants not only help put people into homes, but they help keep them there as well," said Preston. "Housing counseling organizations in Missouri and across the nation will continue to help families make more informed choices before they purchase a home and counsel families facing foreclosure. Now, more than ever, it is critical that Americans better understand how to manage their money, navigate the homebuying process, and secure their financial future."

In Missouri, the following agencies were awarded funding. Detailed individual grant summaries follow this news release.

4-Sight Counseling, Inc., Cape Girardeau - $23,369.59
Community Services League, Independence - $40,217.54
Legal Aid of Western Missouri, Kansas City - $100,651.96
West Central Missouri Community Action, Appleton City - $57,065.48
Housing Options Provided for the Elderly, Inc., St. Louis - $66,835
Justine Petersen Housing & Reinvestment Corp., St. Louis - $105,761.37
Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc., St. Louis - $80,652.61
Youth Education & Health in Soulard, St. Louis - $40,000

Since 2001, HUD has increased funding to 2,300 approved housing counseling agencies by 150 percent. More than $47 million will support 21 national and regional organizations and 376 state and local housing counseling agencies. In addition, HUD is awarding $3 million to two national organizations to train approximately 2,600 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 grassroots organizations that provide advice and guidance to low - and moderate-income families seeking to improve their housing conditions. In addition, these larger organizations help improve the quality of housing counseling services and enhance coordination among other counseling providers.

Counseling agencies will use $4 million to help assist senior citizens seeking reverse mortgages or Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM). These agencies will provide counseling for the rapidly growing number of elderly homeowners who seek to convert equity in their homes into income that can be used to pay for home improvements, medical costs, and other living expenses.

The organizations that provide housing counseling services help people become or remain homeowners or find rental housing, and assist homeless persons in finding the transitional housing they need to move toward a permanent place to live. Grant recipients also help homebuyers and homeowners realistically evaluate their readiness for a home purchase, understand their financing and downpayment options, and navigate what can be an extremely confusing and difficult process.

In addition, grantees help combat predatory lending by helping unwary borrowers avoid unreasonably high interest rates, inflated appraisals, unaffordable repayment terms, and other conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default, and even foreclosure. Likewise, foreclosure prevention counseling helps homeowners facing delinquency or default employ strategies, including expense reduction, negotiation with lenders and loan servicers, and loss mitigation, to avoid foreclosure. With foreclosures on the rise nationwide, these services are more important than ever.

HUD awards annual grants under the housing counseling program through a competitive process. Organizations that apply for grants must be HUD-approved and are subject to biennial performance reviews to maintain their HUD-approved status.

###

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities; creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans; and supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development, and enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

Missouri

4-Sight Counseling, Inc.
Cape Girardeau, MO
$23,369.59 - Comprehensive Counseling
4-Sight Counseling, Inc., a HUD-approved housing counseling agency, has been providing mental health and housing counseling activities for the past three years. With HUD's grant, 4-Sight Counseling will provide a variety of counseling activities that include the following: pre-purchase, pre-occupancy, Fair Housing, Landlord-Tenant Rights, Post-Purchase, Foreclosure Prevention/Loss Mitigation, Services for the Homeless, Homebuyer Education Classes, Mobility and Relocation, Money/Debt Management and all other services of a HUD-approved housing counseling agency. The agency will continue its work with other housing agencies to find placements, to work with clients on homebuyers' workshops and counseling, and to work with them once they are in their home or rental unit. 4-Sight Counseling Inc. will continue to work with clients and lending institutions on foreclosure prevention and loss mitigation services. With the addition of another counselor, the agency will be able to expand its services to include the fourteen counties of Southeast Missouri.

Community Services League
Independence, MO
$40,217.54 - Comprehensive Counseling
Community Services League's (CSL) mission statement is to promote self-sufficiency and provide resources to those in need. CSL has been providing services to those in need since 1916. The agency's motto is "helping people help themselves." The agency carries out that motto through the support of the people in the communities it serves. On average CSL provides emergency assistance to over 13,000 situations annually. It is a full-service agency with a range of services for low-income people and has one of the largest volunteer programs in eastern Jackson County. Low-income, homeless, and marginally housed individuals are provided assistance in finding decent and affordable housing. The agency's services include the following: Housing counseling - rental, mortgage and homeless issues; Education - Fair Housing and FHA products; Referrals - to shelters and other temporary housing; and Counseling - for foreclosure, rent, utility and mortgage payment assistance.

Legal Aid of Western Missouri
Kansas City, MO
$94,130.96 - Comprehensive Counseling
$6,521 - HECM Supplemental
Legal Aid of Western Missouri (LAWMO) has provided a wide range of high-quality legal services for low-income people throughout western Missouri for 44 years. LAWMO focuses its work on cases in which the client's personal safety, housing, or means of support are at-risk. Typical cases include: protective orders and divorces for victims of domestic violence, defenses against illegal evictions, challenges to the quality of public housing, and appeals concerning Social Security and Medicaid benefits for clients with disabilities, disabilities that prevent them from obtaining gainful employment. With 50 attorneys on staff, LAWMO is one of the fifteen largest private law firms in the Kansas City area. LAWMO handles over 12,000 cases annually. LAWMO's 2008 budget exceeds $7 million with funding from federal, state and local governments, foundations, private individuals and organizations. All of these grants require detailed reporting and LAWMO has sophisticated case management software with the ability to track all cases and to sort outcomes in numerous ways. The agency also has multi-lingual staff and over-the-phone interpreters available in over 50 languages.

West Central Missouri Community Action
Appleton City, MO
$57,065.48 - Comprehensive Counseling
West Central Missouri Community Action Agency (WCMCAA) has been in community action and social services for over forty-three years. WCMCAA has been an Approved Housing Counseling Agency for over twenty years and is the Contract Administrator for the (9) nine county St. Clair County PHA and the City of Grandview jurisdiction with over 1215 units in the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The Agency operates a Family Self-Sufficiency Program and a HCV Homeownership Program for its Housing Choice Voucher Program participants. The Housing Division also operates the HUD 202 Program providing affordable housing for low-income families, the elderly and the disabled. WCMCAA provides a wide variety of housing counseling services that includes the following: pre-and post-purchase, mortgage delinquency, reverse mortgage, renter and homeless referrals. The primary objectives of the agency are to provide homeownership opportunities and improve access to affordable, decent and safe housing. WCMCAA Housing Counselors provide one-on-one guidance and advice to a large number of low income families and individuals in a very large geographic area that encompasses more than 5932 square miles in west central Missouri.

Housing Options Provided for the Elderly, Inc
Saint Louis, MO
$66,835 - Comprehensive Counseling
Housing Options Provided For The Elderly (HOPE) exists to help older adults live with dignity and independence in housing most appropriate to their circumstances. HOPE helps seniors and their families explore the range of housing choices and other options available to them by: visiting clients in their homes, understanding clients' needs and desires, identifying problems/needs clients would like to address, educating clients about available resources and other means of addressing problems and meeting needs, assisting clients in identifying outcomes of their choice, assisting clients in making plans to achieve goals, and assisting clients in carrying out their plans. The agency targets low income elderly, minority elderly, and senior homeowners for their services. A current focus of activity is Reverse Mortgage Counseling. HOPE was incorporated as a not-for-profit agency in 1987 and serves clients without regard to race, religion or sexual preference.

Justine Petersen Housing & Reinvestment Corp.
Saint Louis, MO
$90,761.37 - Comprehensive Counseling
$15,000 - HECM Supplemental
Justine Petersen Housing and Reinvestment Corporation was named after the late Justine M. Petersen who helped hundreds of low-to-moderate income families in the St. Louis area purchase their own homes. Ms. Petersen worked with local banks to develop loan products for homebuyers who had been shut out of the homeownership process due to income or location preference. She believed that owning a home promoted the building of assets, contributed to individual growth and to community and neighborhood development and stabilization. Justine Petersen is a Missouri not-for-profit corporation that assists low - to moderate income families to acquire assets. Loan counselors prepare and train individuals for home purchase through one-on-one counseling and homebuyer education seminars. Justine Petersen continues to assist its clients after home purchase by providing counseling services to clients who struggle with mortgage payment issues. Since its inception in 1997, Justine Petersen has provided one-on-one counseling to over 15,000 prospective homebuyers and assisted nearly 4,000 clients to purchase homes, accessing $300 million in mortgage loans. Of these clients, eighty percent were under 80% of the median income, eighty-one percent were minorities, and sixty-seven percent were female-headed households.

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc.
Saint Louis, MO
$80,652.61 - Comprehensive Counseling
Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc. (LSEM) is an independent, non-profit organization that has provided high-quality civil legal assistance and equal access to justice for low-income people in Eastern Missouri for 50 years. LSEM's HUD-funded housing counseling program will provide services to individuals and families facing possible loss of housing due eviction, condemnation, foreclosure, or predatory lending practices. LSEM offers a holistic approach to its housing counseling services providing legal representation with a supportive social work component. The agency will provide services to eligible residents in LSEM's 21-county service area which includes Adair, Clark, Franklin, Jefferson, Knox, Lewis, Lincoln, Macon, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Pike, Ralls, Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, St. Charles, St. Louis, Warren, and Washington counties and St. Louis City.

Youth Education & Health in Soulard
Saint Louis, MO
$40,000 - Comprehensive Counseling
YEHS has 30 years of experience in providing affordable housing, youth education, and other community services. The YEHS Homebuyer Program assists low- and moderate income residents and YouthBuild students/graduates in the St. Louis area in developing a stable financial foundation and purchasing a home. The YEHS Homebuyer Program also provides classes in pre-purchase counseling, rental counseling, fair housing, postpurchase, predatory lending, and financial education. YEHS is a comprehensive clearinghouse for financial and homebuyer education as well as for providing assistance with employment, higher education and trade school issues. For fifteen years, YEHS operated YouthBuild St. Louis, a HUD-funded job training and education program for youth ages 18 to 24. In addition to the development of 44 units of housing through the YouthBuild program, YEHS manages 150 rental units, both affordable and market rate. YEHS became a HUD-approved home counseling agency in 2002. YEHS's efforts are assisted by its collaborations with the St. Louis University Law Clinic, ACORN Housing, Operation Excel YouthBuild program and Red Brick Community Land Trust. YEHS is also developing permanent affordable housing in partnership with Red Brick Community Land Trust.