We’re excited to announce that Housing Action Illinois is beginning to facilitate housing counselor trainings not just in Illinois but in states across the nation.
In response to needs expressed by housing counselors, Housing Action has started to develop our own guides and trainings in the last couple of years. We began by publishing a guide to HUD-approved Client Management Systems that presents side-by-side profiles of each system to help housing counseling agencies choose the one that best fits their needs.
Next, we created a comprehensive, hands-on training to teach housing counselors how to use Home Counselor Online (HCO). HCO is a free CMS developed and managed by Fannie Mae that can make required reporting to HUD and other funders easier.
Most recently, we’ve created step-by-step training to teach housing counselors how to help clients through rental counseling. Americans are more likely to rent a home today than at any other time during the previous 50 years. Given this landscape, it is essential for housing counselors to empower clients with information and resources during every step of the rental process. Our curriculum includes an extensive collection of resources and more than a dozen templates for housing counselors to use as they aid their clients.
This September, we’re partnering with Rural Community Assistance Corps (RCAC) to bring Housing Counselor Online Made Easy to Phoenix, and we’re looking forward to traveling to half a dozen other states in the coming year to facilitate trainings with host organizations.
Our next training, which will help housing counselors guide clients dealing with student loan debt, is forthcoming.
Interested in bringing a Housing Action Illinois training to your community? We’d love to talk. Contact David Young, our Director of Technical Assistance, at 312.939.6074 x202 or david@housingactionil.org.