RoxAnne Witte, a housing counselor with Jefferson County at Home, Housing Action’s newest subgrantee, has noticed the gap between those who pursue housing counseling services and those who don’t widen over her 19-year career. “It’s changed a lot. When we first started people had their 20% for a down payment. Now, you don’t see a lot of that. It’s either that they need a lot of help or they’re over the income limit [to receive a grant] and I don’t see them…We very seldom see people over the grant limit come into our office. They figure ‘I don’t need it. I got the down payment. I’m good to go.’” However, RoxAnne and her colleagues at Jefferson County are working to spread the word about housing counseling services and increase housing options in the County.
RoxAnne first became involved with the county through a part-time position while working at a nonprofit in the area that focused on housing counseling. After the nonprofit closed, RoxAnne and other staff members at the county saw that there was still a need for housing counseling in the area and started offering counseling services directly through the county.
Until a requirement that all housing counselors pass an exam to become HUD-certified, Jefferson County offered counseling services independently. If the agency hadn’t become certified, “We would not have been able to do the counseling for any of the people that were looking at buying homes in Jefferson County,” RoxAnne explains. “We would have been sending [clients] out to Madison or Milwaukee, which is 45 minutes from us.” In Jefferson County, “We’re more rural. So a lot of my stuff is still face to face. My people use cell phones. They don’t have computers, so trying to look at a loan estimate or closing document on a cell phone just doesn’t quite cut it.“
The HUD certification has also allowed Jefferson County to work with clients throughout more of the homebuying process. “Before our HUD certification, people would come in [once they had accepted an offer], and we would do their counseling…Now, because of HUD certification, they can come in anywhere along the way. So someone could want to buy a house a year from now versus just someone who has accepted an offer and is closing soon. Now we take them all where before, it was just anybody who had an accepted offer.”
RoxAnne is also careful to ensure that her clients will be able to continue to afford their homes after a purchase. “I think the hardest part is telling somebody, ‘You’re not quite ready, you need to save a little more, the budget needs to be tweaked a little bit.’ I don’t want you to be house rich and cash poor.I want you to be able to afford it, and I don’t want to see you in six months back saying I need help with my budget. I can’t make my house payment.” This approach leads to longer term success but relies on more involved counseling from RoxAnne and her colleagues.
Jefferson County’s housing counseling program has recently moved into their department of economic development, which allows for collaboration on tackling housing issues. “Right now it’s kind of tough,” says RoxAnne. “There’s not a lot out here that they can afford or is available. Part of what we’re doing now in economic development is looking at developers to put up homes. We know a lot of the newer homes that are going up are going to be a little out of range for the clientele that I work for, but we’re hoping that the starter homes that those people are selling are the ones that my clients would be able to afford.” These collaborations between housing counselors and other branches of the Department of Economic Development allow for a more comprehensive solution to housing problems in the area.
In addition to the financial challenges faced by her clients, RoxAnne has also sometimes found it challenging to convince people that housing counseling services are worth it. “Some of these programs require code inspection and all these other things, and some people think ‘I don’t want to do that. I’m going to just get the straight loan. I don’t want to apply for the grant because then I have to jump through all these other hoops.” However, RoxAnne and the other employees rely on relationships with lenders and realtors throughout the county to spread the word about their services. “Our real estate agents are asking ‘have you been to the bank yet?’ a lot more. And when they go to the bank, the bank is going to say ‘You qualify for the grants. Go see RoxAnne over at Jefferson County.’” She also mentions that word often spreads between friends.
There are many initiatives to look forward to in Jefferson County. “I’m excited that we’re going to have new employees [working in housing counseling]. We’ve also got homes that Habitat [for Humanity] is putting up. We’ve got four new industries that are coming into Jefferson County.” The growth of these industries coincides with the growth of Jefferson County at Home as a housing counseling provider, allowing for them to help the people of Jefferson County take full advantage of the opportunities provided.