The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday restored $125 million of funding to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a move that will help HUD-approved counseling agencies to continue providing their services to reverse mortgage-seeking seniors at little to no cost.
On Wednesday, the committee approved the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012, including the housing counseling funding, $60 million of which will go toward HUD’s housing counseling services for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) counseling and pre-purchase counseling.
The other $65 million is slated for the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program.
Earlier in the year, Congress slashed $88 million of HUD housing counseling funding, prompting the industry to raise the hue and cry for its restoration, especially in light of new additions to HECM counseling protocols.
“This brings us one more vital step closer to restoration of the critically important counseling program but leaves us with yet more work to be done to make certain HECM counseling is funded at adequate levels to benefit our seniors,” said H. West Richards, executive director of the Coalition for Independent Seniors, in a statement.
The bill will now fall under negotiations between the House and Senate.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
