HOUSING COUNSELING
BUYING A HOUSE IS ONE OF LIFE'S MILESTONES
Nearly seven out of ten of all Americans, five in ten African-Americans, own their home.
Home ownership brings a sense of security and economic empowerment. Your own home means a place where you can raise your family, create memories and legacy for your children, become part of a community, and help build a neighborhood. It is a worthy goal and a way to add value to your life.
With the quality of life advantages, there are the mortgage interest and property tax deductions that come with home ownership. Mortgage interest payments and real estate taxes will provide you with some great annual tax deductions. In the first few years of the mortgage, most of your payments will go toward the interest debt. Eventually you will start to pay down the principal and build equity in your home.
Please click on the programs below for more information
Home Ownership
Affordable Housing
Housing Flash News
Housing Vouchers
Looking for Housing
Searching for InformationWhere can I find general information on housing and homelessness?
Where can I find information on housing programs for low-income people?
Where can I find a list of agencies that will provide information to developers interested in constructing housing for
low-income renters and owners?
My church wants to develop affordable housing, how do we learn how to do this?
I am an investor, how I find out about investing in affordable housing?
I heard about a housing seminar on the radio, should I attend the seminar before trying to purchase a home?
How do I get into the Habitat program?
Where do I find information for first time home buyers?
I am 70 years old, I'm on a fixed income and can no longer afford my house, is there anything I can do?
I bought a home through a low income housing program, now the house needs a new furnace that I can't afford, are there programs that can help me?
Relationship Landlord/Tenant
Housing Discrimination
Public Housing
Lead Poisoning
What is the Area Median Income (AMI) and how do I find out what it is in my area?
What is Fair Market Rent (FMR) and how do I find out what it is in my area?
How do I find out about specific housing needs in my state?
How do I calculate my own Section 8 rent?
How can I get my Section 8 certificate back from my landlord so I can find new housing?
I received a letter from my landlord stating that my building will no longer have Section 8 assistance. Do I have to move?
What is a “sticky” voucher?
How do I qualify for a “sticky” voucher?
I have a Section 8 certificate, but I can't afford the application fees that landlords require when applying for housing. What can I do?
Other Questions
Now that you are ready for your home ownership, there are a few critical steps on the road to getting your “piece of rock”:
Request a copy of your credit report from each of the credits bureaus
Analyze your income, lifestyle and financial obligations
Get a loan pre-approved by a mortgage lender
Find a realtor
When working with Helping Hands International counselors you getting expertise about the market and industry, access to information and referral, plus a negotiator and facilitator.
Be open and honest about yours needs and situation.
Residential improvement initiatives
Federal guidelines define a unit as affordable if the household living in it is paying no more than 30 percent of its income on housing cost.
Affordability varies between cities and races.
A typical black household earns $30,478, while its white counterpart earns $65,441.
And generally, a person can buy a home that costs about three times his or her annual income when loans are available with an interest rate of 6 percent. Therefore, an affordable house for a white household can cost around $196,000 and $91,000 for a black household.
Affordable Housing
Helping Hands International seeks to address the affordable housing crisis through education and partnerships. The organization promotes the creation of healthy communities through affordable housing, home ownership and investments in neighborhood revitalization through local partnerships of residents, nonprofits, lenders, business community and local government.
Residential Rescue, is a proven Community Development Program in achieving Helping Hands International's strategic plan to provide placement and counseling services for people in need while building healthy communities through fair housing and healthy homes assistance. Helping Hands International is dedicated to help provide decent and safe services in response to the various housing needs of low income persons, especially families with children, the elderly, and persons with physical or mental disabilities.
Helping Hands International has made a commitment to serve the needs of our communities in a caring manner that values all people and to respond to every emergency relief assistance call such as:
Transitional Emergency Relief Assistance
Transitional Medical Housing Assistance
Senior Housing Assistance
Rental Counseling and Assistance Program
Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS
Housing Flash News
A New Deal for Aspiring Homeowners
Real Estate: Families who can afford a monthly mortgage payment but do not have enough money for a down payment on a home can apply for assistance through a program that started on Wednesday June 02, 2004.
The Housing and Urban Development Department will distribute more than $161 million to state and local agencies as part of the program. Applicants' incomes may not exceed 80 percent of their community's median income.
Grants will be worth up to $10,000, or six percent of the purchase price, whichever is greater.
Housing Vouchers
The Housing Voucher Program (Section 8) helps 2 million low income families make up the difference between 30% of their income and the cost of modest rent. Despite a long history of effectiveness and bipartisan support, vouchers are facing cuts in both 2004 and 2005.
2004 : On April 22, the Bush Administration announced it is retroactively changing the way it funds housing vouchers. This change is leaving many housing authorities short the funds they need to cover all current vouchers. Housing authorities across the country are planning terminations and rent increases, and several development deals that depend on Section 8 are have fallen through or are at risk of falling through.
2005 : For its 2005 budget, the Administration has proposed both cutting the program's funding and restricting the program in a way that would remove important resident protections and starve it over time.
More information on the threats to housing vouchers in both 2004 and 2005 is at the Center on Budget and Policy Priority
See what's new at NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST FUND
Looking for Housing
I am looking for housing that is affordable. Who can help me?
Helping Hands International is able to provide direct assistance to people looking for affordable housing. However, there are places you can look for help.
Every member of Congress has a staff member whose job it is to assist the people they represent, that is, their constituents with issues such as the ones you are facing. This person should know the local community and how you can best go about finding the services you need.
To find your member of Congress, click the"Alert Contact Congress Now!" box below, then enter your ZIP code. You will see a picture of your representative and under his or her picture will be a link that says info. Click that link to get the phone number of the main district office. Another link will give you the numbers of additional district offices; call the one that is nearest to you. Ask for the person who handles constituent services. Explain your situation, and ask for suggestions on how to best access affordable housing in your district. The constituent caseworker should be able to point you in the right direction or suggest resources in your area.
Searching for Information
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is an incredibly valuable resource. Often, organizations or companies put all of their print publications on their web sites. Whenever possible, we have linked an answer with a web site. In addition, see the links section on this site. Links are particularly important because searching the web can be frustrating. Not only does keyword searching produce mountains of data that may be of no use, it often produces a different arrangement of data with each search. A site with a good set of links is often better than a good search engine or directory. For specific searches where a search engine might come in handy, try Alta Vista.
The web site address of a group is often the acronym or first letters of the words in a group's name, or common abbreviation of a group, followed by a “domain.” Non profits use “org.” For example, the web site of the National Low Income Housing Coalition is http://www.nlihc.org. For profit businesses use the domain “com.” So the web site of City Research, a for profit research firm with many useful housing related research papers on its site, is http://www.cityresearch.com . Government agencies use “gov.” The web site of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is www.hud.gov . Many states use the formula www.state.XX.us, where XX equals the state's postal abbreviation. For example, to go to the state of Minnesota 's home page, you would go to http://www.state.mn.us . From the state's homepage, you can usually go to departments, agencies, and legislative sites.
At a minimum, the information on a web site, and how it is arranged, is a clue to the perspective of the people who have organized it. Departments, people, and subject matter are often presented in a hierarchy, that is, in order of importance. If something you need to know is hard to find, or not on the site at all, you have an idea of its importance to the people who design and approve the site.
Of course, there's a great deal of junk on the web as well, so be careful what you believe.
The Telephone Book
Don't underestimate the telephone book. Browsing in the government listings (often the “blue pages”), should your local phone book have them, will give you an idea of how local, state, and federal government agencies are organized in your area. Agencies that deal directly with housing sometimes appear under different names. They may be called the Department of Community Affairs or Community Development, or something similar. In addition, different agencies deal with different aspects of housing. A state's Housing Finance Agency, as its name suggests, deals with housing finance. Finally, if these departments or agencies don't appear in alphabetical order, it may be because they are a subdivision of another department or agency. So keep looking!
In addition, the front portions of many telephone book white pages contain social service directories and numbers to call in emergency situations -- if you have an emergency housing need, or are in an abusive situation, for example. To find these pages, look in the table of contents that appears in first few pages of the phone book, or browse through the pages that precede the directory listings. Most libraries have local phone books.
Libraries
A good reference librarian is gold. Sometimes they will even help you over the phone. In addition, some public libraries contain a wide range of information sources, including government directories, specialized industry yearbooks, and phone books for other areas. If you're lucky, your library also offers Internet access.
Associations
An association represents the interests of a particular industry group. A single industry often has many associations. Most associations also conduct training and education. Housing is no exception to this. For profit housing developers, non-profit housing developers, and state and local government housing agencies are represented by a variety of associations, based on type of housing, or the size or location of the organization. Many are located in Washington , DC , and most have web sites. While the information an association collects and publishes usually reflects the interests of its members, it is still useful to people with other interests. Helping Hands International's web site has a links section that connects to many non-profits. Another place to start is at the National Multi-Housing Council, http://www.nmhc.org , the association of apartment owners. NMHC's links emphasize for-profit interests. In addition, each site connects to other sites with overlapping and different links, and so on.
Emergencies
In addition to the listings at the front of the telephone book, you may try calling the local office of your Member of Congress. If you don't know who that is, call the League of Women Voters, and they will tell you.
Another place to call is the local chapter of the United Way , or Catholic Charities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I find general information on housing and homelessness?
National Alliance to End Homelessness, 202/638-1526, http://www.naeh.org
National Coalition for the Homeless, 202/737-6444, http://nch.ari.net
National Housing Institute, 973/678-9060, http://www.nhi.org
National Housing Law Project, 202/463-9461
National Housing Trust, 202/833-893, http://www.nhtinc.org
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 202/638-2535, http://www.nlchp.org
National Low Income Housing Coalition, 202/662-1530, http://www.nlihc.org
Where can I find information on housing programs for low-income people?
For an overview of programs, see the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 1998 Advocate's Resource Book at http://www.nlihc.org/advocates.
Other places to look include:
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 202/708-1422, or go to its web site, http://www.hud.gov , or call HUD's local offices.
Your state or city office of housing. It might be called the Department of Housing, or Community Affairs, or something like that.
Your local Public Housing Authority.
Rural Housing: The Housing Assistance Council, 202/842-8600, http://www.ruralhome.org
Co-op housing: The National Association of Housing Cooperatives, 703/549-5201, http://www.coophousing.org
Mobile homes or other manufactured housing: Contact your state housing agency and ask for the division that deals with manufactured housing. State housing agencies may also be called departments of Housing and Community Development or Community Affairs.
Where can I find a list of agencies that will provide information to developers interested in constructing housing for low-income renters and owners?
The Enterprise Foundation, 410/964-1230, http://www.enterprisefoundation.org
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), 202/785-2908
The McAuley Institute,301/588-8110, http://www.mcauley.org/
National Council of State Housing Agencies, 202/624-7710, http://www.ncsha.org
My church wants to develop affordable housing, how do we learn how to do this?
Enterprise Foundation, 410/964-1230, http://www.enterprisefoundation.org
Habitat for Humanity, 912/924-6935, http://www.habitat.org
HUD Office of Interfaith Community Outreach, 202/708-2404
Local Initiatives Support Corporation, 212/455-9800, http://www.liscnet.org
The McAuley Institute,301/588-8110, http://www.mcauley.org/
I am an investor, how I find out about investing in affordable housing?
Enterprise Foundation, 410/964-1230, http://www.enterprisefoundation.org
Local Initiatives Support Corporation, 212/455-9800, http://www.liscnet.org
The McAuley Institute, 301/588-8110, http://www.mcauley.org/
I heard about a housing seminar on the radio, should I attend the seminar before trying to purchase a home?
If the seminar is charging a fee, you can probably receive the same information without charge by contacting a HUD approved loans counseling office.
Call HUD's toll free number: 800/569-4287, or see their website at http://www.hudhcc.org/
How do I get into the Habitat program?
Contact Habitat for Humanity, 912/924-6935, http://www.habitat.org
Where do I find information for first time home buyers?
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1-800-569-4287. Ask for the booklet, "Buying Your Home – Settlement Costs and Helpful Information" or view the booklet at http://www.hud.gov:80/fha/sfh/res/sfhrestc.html .
Also try Fannie Mae Home paths, at 800-732-6643, or on the web at http://www.homepath.com
I am 70 years old, I'm on a fixed income and can no longer afford my house, is there anything I can do?
HUD maintains a list of approved housing counseling agencies. Call HUD's toll free number: 800/569-4287, or see their website at http://www.hudhcc.org/
I bought a home through a low income housing program, now the house needs a new furnace that I can't afford, are there programs that can help me?
Contact the Neighborhood Housing Services or Neighbor Works office in your area. NHS works with individual homeowners in order to maintain neighborhoods. Look in the phone book, or call 202/376-2400, or go http://www.nw.org for the phone number of your local office.
Relationship Landlord/Tenant
I have questions regarding landlord/tenant disputes and tenants' rights in general. Who can help? How do I go about putting my rent in escrow until my landlord makes repairs? Contact the National Housing Law Project, 202/463-9461. Or contact Legal Aid or Legal Services, or contact your local State Bar association and explain that you need help from a legal aid program. In addition, some law schools operate legal clinics for low and moderate income people.
Housing Discrimination
Who do I call if I believe I have been discriminated against in my search for housing? HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, 800-669-9777, or go to their online form and file a complaint.
Public Housing
I live in public housing and I read in the paper that the city will be tearing down my building, what do I do?
If you live in public housing, call the Center for Community Change, 202/342-0567. They may assist you in forming a tenant organization to protect your interests, or on the web at http://www.communitychange.org
Lead Poisoning
An examination at the doctor's office revealed that my child has lead poisoning, how do I get help?
Call the local health department, where the lead program likely is. You may also call the National Safety Council, 1-800/424-5323, to receive information.
What is the Area Median Income (AMI) and how do I find out what it is in my area ?
The Area Median Income (AMI), or Median Family Income (MFI), is an estimate of how much money people make in your area. If you were able to see a list of all the incomes in your area, the median income would be the number in the middle of that list. A person's income status (“low-income,” “very low-income,” etc.) is based on that number and is used to determine eligibility for housing assistance.
To see the AMI in your area, go to http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html. You can also contact your local Public Housing Authority to get AMI in your area.
What is Fair Market Rent (FMR) and how do I find out what it is in my area?
Fair Market Rent, or FMR, is the number used to determine how much a landlord can charge for rent in a specific area. The number itself is established by HUD. To see the FMR in your area, go to http://www.huduser.org/data/asthse/fmr/fmr99/index.html. You can also contact your local Public Housing Authority to get FMR in your area.
How do I find out about specific housing needs in my state?
Data sources include:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published several housing affordability studies. 202/408-1080, http://www.cbpp.org
National Low Income Housing Coalition publishes Out of Reach, an annual affordability gap study that breaks information down by state and metro area. 202/662-1530, http://www.nlihc.org/oor98
Department of Housing and Urban Development has recently published a worst case needs report, Rental Housing Assistance -- The Crisis Continues. 202/708-0685, or http://www.hud.gov/worsfact/worscase.html
Other sources include state and local housing departments, legislative committees, and local non-profits.
How do I find out how much housing money is allocated by my state and what it is being spent on?
Contact the Budget Office of your state, or the Budget or Appropriations Committees in the state legislature. The state housing department may also have a budget which it publishes, but every housing program may not necessarily be located in the housing department.
How do I calculate my own Section 8 rent?
Your share of rent and utilities should equal about 30% of your income, but there are several exceptions to this standard. HUD rules allow for certain deductions for things like foster care payments, adoption assistance payments and certain stipends.
If you hold a Section 8 voucher instead of a Section 8 certificate, your share of rent and utilities may be higher than 30% because the voucher only pays up to the Fair Market Rent (FMR) and you must pay the difference if your unit exceeds the FMR.
To figure out the exact amount of your share of rent, ask the housing authority for a copy of the income worksheet it uses to calculate your rent. The HUD regulation is at 24 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Section 5.609 and provides the full legal details. The CFR can be found at many local libraries, or at http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html .
How can I get my Section 8 certificate back from my landlord so I can find new housing?
You have your certificate, not your landlord. If you want to terminate your lease in order to move, you should read the sections of the lease that tell you how, when and under what circumstances you can end your lease. You will first have to give written notice to your landlord. If the lease is not clear on this subject, ask the housing authority.
I received a letter from my landlord stating that my building will no longer have Section 8 assistance. Do I have to move?
You cannot be forced to move, but you may not be able to afford to stay where you live because your landlord is probably converting the apartment to a market rate complex. If you receive such a notice, you should call your Section 8 administrator immediately (your local Public Housing Authority) to discuss your options. You will probably be offered a Section 8 voucher or certificate to use at another complex.
What is a “sticky” voucher?
This type of voucher is issued under special circumstances on properties that are owned by private developers (not housing authorities). When the owner of such a property takes the option to “pre-pay” a HUD-insured loan, any agreements with HUD to provide affordable housing are canceled. Pre-payment usually means a rent increase and a tenant may then be eligible for a Section 8 certificate or voucher. This “sticky” voucher may also be referred to as an “enhanced” voucher, a “pre-payment” voucher or a “preservation” voucher. If you qualify for such a voucher, you can use it to stay where you are or move to another property.
How do I qualify for a “sticky” voucher?
If you live in the type of property described above, you qualify for a sticky voucher if you make 80% or lower of the Area Median Income (AMI), you are currently un-assisted by Section 8 and you face a rent increase within one year of pre-payment that would cause you to pay more than 30% of your income towards rent.
I have a Section 8 certificate, but I can't afford the application fees that landlords require when applying for housing. What can I do?
Your Section 8 voucher does NOT cover application fees.
What is the correct number for immigration? 1-800-755-0777
The Department of Social Services took my children and I have to find “suitable” housing in order to get them back. What do I do? The Family Unification Program (FUP) is geared specifically to people who have lost their children because of inadequate housing. FUP provides rental assistance in the form of Section 8 vouchers to families who meet the regular Section 8 criteria and whose children are at risk of placement in out-of-home care, or are delayed in returning from care, because families lack adequate housing. While there is not a large number of these vouchers available, individuals/families who feel like they qualify for this program should ask their local public child welfare agency and/or public housing agency about the program.
Questions about this program can also be answered by the Housing and Homelessness Division of the Child Welfare League of America, the primary organization working with HUD to facilitate this program. Call 202/638-2952.
BUYING TOOLS
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: www.hud.gov
HSH Associates: Track mortgage data: www.hsh.com
Bankrate: www.bankrate.com
Federal National Mortgage Association: www.fanniemae.com
National Association of Realtors: www.realtor.org
RESEARCH TOOLS
National Association of Home Inspectors: www.nahi.org
Relocation Crime Lab. : www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/crime.html
Mega law: www.megalaw.com'top/condo.p
The School Report: www.theschoolreport.com
U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis: www.bea.doc.gov
Federal Emergency Management Agency: www.fema.gov
Crime reports: www.crimereports.com
Community Association Institute: www.caionline.org
