Title
Respectfully urging Congress to provide adequate federal funding provided for housing counseling, namely $60 million for the HUD Housing Counseling Assistance Program and $40 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation's National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program, which are critical to ensuring that HUD-approved housing counseling agencies can continue to serve families in need in the City of Philadelphia and across the country.
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WHEREAS, Last year alone, more than 1.3 million households received assistance from Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -approved housing counseling agencies; and
WHEREAS, The services HUD-approved housing counseling agencies provide are essential to meeting the housing needs of families in communities, including preparing first-time homebuyers for the financial commitment of homeownership, helping homeowners to resolve mortgage delinquencies and avoid foreclosure, helping renters find affordable rental options, and working with senior citizens to help them stay in their houses; and
WHEREAS, Federal funding for housing counseling has steadily declined in recent years, with the HUD Housing Counseling Assistance Program appropriation declining from $87.5 million dollars in FY 2010 to $47 million in the current budget; and
WHEREAS, Funding for the NFMC Program has similarly fallen steadily from $180 million during the peak of the foreclosure crisis to $40 million in the current budget, despite foreclosure and delinquency remaining major issues in many parts of the country; and
WHEREAS, These funding cuts have resulted in a significant decrease in the capacity of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies to provide services to the families who desperately need them; and
WHEREAS, The demand for pre-purchase counseling has been on the rise in recent years, increasing by 33 percent between FY 2013 and FY 2015, according to HUD; and
WHEREAS, Pre-purchase counselors successf...
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