"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." -- Proverbs 19:20
The Question that Some Should Ask Is "Why Do Democrat-Marxists Fight So Hard to Keep Uncertified, Uncredentialed "Housing Counselors" In Urban Centers to Provide Financial Counseling to Those Attempting to Purchase Their First Home or Even to Keep It in the Worst of Economic Times Brought On By the Response of Local and State Governments to the COVID 19 Pandemic? The US Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Housing Counseling program provides counseling to consumers on seeking, financing, maintaining, renting, or owning a home. The program also addresses homelessness through counseling and assists homeowners in need of foreclosure assistance. Counseling is provided by HUD-approved housing counseling agencies.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that the starter median home price in U.S. metro areas was $233,400 in the first quarter of 2020. If you have a down payment of 20%, you’ll have to come up with $46,680. If you put down 10%, you’ll need $23,340 and a 3% down payment is $7,002. Many first-time homebuyers face challenges to their first purchase including down payment deficiencies, credit reporting issues, and employment history. For such a significant investment, many first-time homebuyers have limited access to crucial information that will help successfully guide them in overcoming these challenges. Many can not afford the luxury of counsel from variant advisers in the real estate and financial services industries. Hence, they turn to housing counseling agencies to provide essential guidance. The agencies' funding is tied to equipping challenged individuals to successfully becoming homeowners.
State and local governments, like the District of Columbia (DC) Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), requires low to moderate-income persons and government employees to use state-approved housing counseling agencies in order to ascertain down payment and closing cost assistance for the purchase of single-family homes, condominiums or cooperative units in the District. The DC HPAP program provides up to $84,000 of down payment assistance and closing cost support. In order to get the financial support, homebuyers must attend an 8-hour orientation class with a housing counseling agency, or community-based organization, and then, complete all realty and financial preparation actions, which could take months, with a housing counselor. The ordeal is intensive but, the journey is rewarding.
HUD-approved Housing Counseling has been helping consumers across America make informed housing decisions for more than 50 years. A governmental leader that cares to ensure the best available taxpayer-supported realty, insurance and financial counseling to low and moderate-income persons and state and local government employees would require such front-line workers to be expressly trained and regulated to perform at the highest levels of performance. The American Dream is what is at stake even if you are a Democrat-Marxist that does not believe in the rewarding principle of private property ownership for the individual. You campaigned on the idea that homeownership and education were the chief ways of getting people out of poverty and into the middle class. Would you not want the promise of the American Dream to come to pass so that the "rich would not get richer and the poor get poorer"? Adam Barrone wrote, "The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance." Certainly, a Governor or Mayor would want the best trained and most credentialed persons serving the needs of those that have been "oppressed" in this capitalist society and "disenfranchised" in the modern free market. Right?
On December 14, 2016, HUD published a Final Rule in the Federal Register entitled Housing Counseling: New Certification Requirements. This rule implements statutory requirements that housing counseling required under or provided in connection with all HUD programs will be provided by "HUD certified housing counselors". With the new certification requirements, the benefits to the renter, the prospective homebuyer, or the existing homeowner are increased assurance of a more knowledgeable housing counselor providing more effective housing counseling services. HUD expects that more knowledgeable housing counselors will lead to better identification of housing issues, more knowledgeable referrals and resolution of barriers, and a greater ability to avoid scams.
Yes, It Has Been Four (4) Years Since This Requirement Was Put on the Books and Many of the Current Counselors Have Been Unable to Pass the Exam. On 29 April 2018, I passed the HUD Housing Counselors Certification Examination - Online. While I am not active in the Housing counseling industry, although I would love my non-profit Open Heart Close Case to become a HUD Certified Counseling Agency, outside of it, I am more qualified to provide services to those in greatest need than those that have been active and practicing as "uncredentialed and uncertified" housing counselors since the rule was put in place. Over two years have passed since my exam success and the federally, state, and local funded housing counseling agencies are still employing uncertified counselors to provide, credit counseling, money management, and home preservation skills training to those in greatest need.
Let's put it another way.
In order for your stockbroker to provide financial consult, he must have a Series Seven (7) License. In order for your Insurance Agent to consult with you on preparing for a life or death calamity that will result in financial loss then, they must pass the State Life and Health Exam. In order for a Real Estate Broker to buy and sell homes on your behalf then, they must pass the State Real Estate Exam. In order for a mortgage loan officer to originate a home purchase loan, he or she must comply with the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) established requirements for the licensing and/or registration of all Mortgage Loan Originators (MLOs). All of these federal, state, and locally regulated entities involved in the home purchase process require certifications of agents and officers.
HUD says in order to become a "HUD Certified Housing Counselor", a counselor must meet the following two eligibility requirements: 1) pass the HUD Housing Counselor Certification written examination and 2) work for an agency approved to participate in HUD’s Housing Counseling Program. Without certifications, HUD says that counselors have saved over 200,000 homes from foreclosure, help over 1.1 million families create budgets, and helped over 1.1 million individuals and families receive counseling. Imagine how much more could be done with credentialed staff. For many housing counseling agencies or community-based organizations, the role of housing counselor is more that of a social worker with data entry skills than a certified financial advisor essential to individual wealth accumulation and preservation responsible for protecting the taxpayer's resources and employing industry standards to promote economic growth and development for the Nation. In this Indeed employment opportunity submitted by a DC-based housing counseling agency, nowhere is it stated that "HUD certification" would be required either initially or within a certain time period.
Beyond the fact that they would be responsible for working from 9 AM to 5 AM Monday through Friday, there does not appear a serious concern that HUD will actually proceed with certifying the industry. By the way, good luck finding that employee for $45,000 per year. Talk about attention to detail in an industry that lives and dies by it! In Urban America today, thanks to Sen. Kamala Harris and her ilk, in order to be a "modern progressive" Housing Counselor providing advice and counsel to persons, most often impoverished, in real estate planning, financial counseling, life and retirement planning, and more, you must know somebody, preferably family, at the local non-profit and show up for work.
That's It!
Yes, "the least, the last, and the lost" are placing their American Dreams in the hands of individuals that may know less than they about establishing budgets, setting asset accumulation goals, and developing legal constructs to ascertain and preserve real estate ownership. Let me make this abundantly clear, you don't need "papers"--certifications--or education to provide "housing counselor" services in Urban America. Yes, Little Larry, from across the street, with all of the financial acumen of a liberal arts Shakesperian theatre major, may sit with you and review your credit report to determine home purchase viability.
Buying a home is one of the most expensive and challenging decisions that individuals will make in all of their lifetimes. The ramifications of any process error can be devastating to their financial futures and their cultural aspirations. However, you are asking such "paper-pushing", social working devotees to provide intimate and extravagant financial counsel to those that they politically consider the most oppressed and ignorant in the capitalist system of America. This may be a reason that the poor get poorer but you won't hear that from the agencies that are more concerned with losing federal, state, and local funding. It's not about the person in need during this horrible time. It's about the "well funded" agencies keeping the funding stream alive through these perilous times. The system has spoken and the individual will have to wait because the corporate provider of services to the poor is needier. It's a better mobilized and influential lobby of poverty organizations versus the American taxpayer and first-time homebuyer. The Haves Won and the Have-Nots Lost!
Think me harsh?! Then, let's take a look at the National Housing Resource Center's Press Release.
Press Release: HUD Secretary Ben Carson Extends Critical Deadline for Housing Counseling Organizations at Risk of Losing Funding
On July 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its Interim Final Rule on its website to announce a delay in the deadline for housing counselors to become HUD certified. The pause is meant to ensure that vital housing counseling services remain available to the nation’s homebuyers and renters, particularly those who need housing and mortgage assistance to recover financially from the effects of the COVID-19 emergency. The Interim Final Rule will be subsequently published for comment in the Federal Register.
This effort was led by many advocates and stakeholders, including Senator Tina Smith. U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) says that Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson heeded her call to extend the August 1, 2020 deadline for housing counselor certification for HUD’s Housing Counseling Assistance Program by at least one year. Smith led a group of Senators in pressing Secretary Carson for this extension so that counseling agencies can continue to get members of their organization certified. Many agencies would have been unable to complete this process before August 1 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and, therefore, "risked" losing HUD funding.
The Senators who signed the letter are:
Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA)
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-CA)
Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV)
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ)
The Democrat-Marxist Senator persuaded HUD Secretary Ben Carson to extend the deadline one more year. Why? Many "well-heeled" poverty organizations serving low to moderate-income American Dreamers have been unsuccessful in getting their personnel certified. Let me get this straight. They had four (4) years to pass the examination. They spent federal, state, and local monies on training their personnel to provide the services in which they would be examined. In spite of the personnel funding and time given to pass their examinations for certification, they need an extension. Let me get this straight. The COVID pandemic hit America in August 2016, right Dr. Fauci, and so, as a result of the response, we need a one (1) year extension.
For those following along at home, it was not until March 2020 that states and localities began to lockdown as a response to the outbreak of COVID 19 in the United States. It was August 2016 that HUD enacted the certification requirement with a deadline of August 2020 for housing counseling agencies, community-based organizations, and housing counselors to achieve certification. Yeah, it was definitely COVID 19 that did it.
And why do you really need the extension?
We might--er, will--lose our funding.
President Donald J. Trump is attempting a variety of ways to stop the evictions of tenants and protect the American Dream during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Over the course of the pandemic, President Trump has made providing assistance to Americans facing financial hardship a top priority. HUD is providing housing counseling services and has published resources and guidance to help tenants, landlords, and lenders, including a toolkit to help landlords and public housing authorities work with their tenants during this time. The hope is that American political leadership is committed to the well-being of every American constitutionally during this incredulous time of disease, fear, and anxious response. This requires them not to accept the "soft bigotry of low expectations" but, to call upon all to preserve the American Dream for any and all including "the least, the last, and the lost".
Historian James Truslow Adams, in his 1931 book "Epic of America", described the American Dream as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement". Adams also wrote, "One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live." It seems fitting for this time that the modern housing counselor bear with great grit the brunt of this labor and excel in this their hour of greatest need. In Fiscal Year 2018, the District made over 360 down payment assistance loans through HPAP and over 140 down payment assistance loans through Employee Assistance Housing Program (EAHP). Now, the labor of love will be securing the American Dream for each of the 500 homeowners beyond the pandemic threat.
As we focus, we must make a commitment to those facing the greatest hardship. The commitment is that we provide the best and the brightest to aide every American in recovering from the financial duress incurred by the public safety responses of state and local governments. These often tyrannical edicts that created a world of essential and non-essential work. In that world, many families tetter on the border of "safe at home" and homelessness. These families do not need a social worker's approach to muster the financial storms of life. They need individuals that are willing to educate them in the best ways to stay afloat financially, deal with creditors, and to save their homes. Those called to this immaculate duty must not shirk the vital responsibilities of service. We must commit all advocates and stakeholders to get their housing counselors HUD certified now!
American lives and dreams are depending on it.
