Housing Counseling Summary

A homeowner facing foreclosure is often worried, stressed, and confused about the best course of action to take in order to save his or her home. Housing counselors serve as vital intermediaries between troubled homeowners and their mortgage servicers and work with homeowners to determine the best possible options for staying in their homes. About 45 percent of homeowners who complete counseling are able to stay in their homes, which is higher than those homeowners who do not complete counseling. 
 
However, most housing counselors in the Chicago region do not have sufficient capacity to meet the recent influx of demand for their services. This problem is particularly acute in South and West Cook County, which have high rates of foreclosure but relatively few counseling agencies, and the collar counties. Clear lines of communication with servicers are crucial to finding the best option for the homeowner, and counselors still struggle with a lack of servicer responsiveness, transparency, and accountability. Borrowers often do not seek help until they are seriously delinquent on the mortgages or already in the foreclosure process, when it may be too late to keep the borrower in his or her home. The demand for legal counseling has also risen with that of foreclosure counseling, with low-income home owners in the Chicago area increasingly needing legal representation. The need is particularly acute in the southern and western suburbs of Chicago, where the numbers of foreclosures are risingand legal aid and court-based resources are scarce.
 

Counselors need more resources in order to adequately meet the need for their services, as well as ongoing training to keep up with the rapidly changing options for preventing foreclosure. Servicers need to improve internal recordkeeping and communication procedures and increase transparency into their decision-making process. Outreach must be appropriately targeted and motivate borrowers to seek help before their loans are seriously delinquent. 
 
This page details efforts by Regional HOPI partners to increase capacity of counselors by advocating for federal and state resources and holding regular trainings on best practices, pioneer new ways of reaching borrowers, improve data collection on counseling outcomes, and improve networks among counselors. The Regional HOPI Action Plan identified Chicago region needs for housing counseling and legal aid and prioritized enhancing outreach, increasing access, and improving networks.