HFAs to Receive Over $10 Million for Foreclosure Prevention Counseling

NeighborWorks® America announced yesterday that it has awarded nearly $40 million in funding to support counseling for struggling homeowners to help them avoid foreclosure through the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program. The recipients include twenty-one HFAs that combined will receive almost $10.8 million. Funding will also be distributed to 19 HUD Counseling Intermediaries and 60 local NeighborWorks affiliates. A list of all the grants awarded is available here.

NFMC was established by Congress in 2007 to increase the availability of counseling for homeowners on the verge of foreclosure. NeighborWorks has administered the program since its inception. The recently announced grants are the tenth round of funding provided through NFMC, each one funded through congressional appropriations. Including this latest round of funding, NFMC has awarded over $800 million in funding to support counseling and legal assistance for struggling homeowners.

NeighborWorks’ also released yesterday its latest Congressional Update on NFMC, which reports that the program has assisted almost 2 million homeowners. State HFAs have played an integral role in these efforts. Including the latest round of funding, 41 state HFAs have received over $258 million through NFMC.

According to an Urban Institute study released in 2014, homeowners who received NFMC counseling were nearly twice as likely to obtain a mortgage modification as those who did not receive NFMC counseling. In addition, those homeowners who received NFMC counseling were three times more likely to receive a loan modification cure compared to non-counseled homeowners. On average, NFMC-counseled homeowners who received a modification had their annual payment reduced by almost $5,000.