National Intermediary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Since 1998, Housing Opportunities, Inc. has served as a National Intermediary with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Counseling Program.

The Housing Counseling Program is a reimbursement program that supports the delivery of a wide variety of housing counseling services to homebuyers, homeowners, low- to moderate-income renters and the homeless. The primary objectives of the program are to expand homeownership opportunities and improve access to affordable housing. Counseling agencies provide guidance and advice to help families and individuals improve their housing conditions and meet the responsibilities of tenancy and homeownership. Agencies also help borrowers avoid the many predatory lending practices and conditions that can result in a loss of equity, increased debt, default and foreclosure.

National Intermediaries apply for funding through HUD’s yearly Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), a competitive grant application process. The role of an Intermediary is to provide and manage sub-grant pass-through allocations to their network of affiliated housing counseling agencies. Intermediaries provide training, and technical assistance to ensure contract compliance and on-going uniform quality control. On-site reviews are also conducted at each agency location to ensure client file documentation is in order, and other requirements of HUD are being met.

The Housing Counseling NOFA is typically published in early spring as part of HUD’s consolidated SuperNOFA. Applications are due in early summer with award announcements being made at the end of each federal fiscal year (October 1st through September 30th).
Currently, there are 30 housing counseling agencies throughout 14 states participating and receiving reimbursement for their eligible HUD housing counseling activities through our Intermediary master contract.

………If you are interested in learning how your agency can join our network of HUD agencies, please email hoimain@hoisite.org with your inquiry.