Housing Action Illinois is collecting stories from professional housing counselors and clients to help illustrate how housing counseling makes a difference in our communities.

We will use these stories to show the need for robust federal funding for housing counseling and support for education for all community members.

Learn more about recent changes to funding for housing counseling and eligible activities »

Even just sending in a 1-2 sentence answer to one question helps, and you’re welcome to record yourself answering and send in an audio or video file.

View some very short example stories » 

Click below to submit your story today:

Questions? Contact us at communications@housingactionil.org.

Open Communities offers both fair housing and housing counseling programming, which equips Open Communities’ staff to solve a wider range of problems their clients may be facing. “When folks call and they’re experiencing housing instability or a crisis, from their perspective it’s just a crisis and they need help. They don’t know the delineation [between programs] so it’s great to have both in one agency.” It has also given Sarah a unique perspective on the problems her clients face. “There are so many issues for folks that present as either an affordability issue or a credit issue that is preventing them from getting into housing…but if you have a fair housing lens, you can ask about patterns,” Sarah says. “Are there patterns with a particular housing provider? You can work on their individual goals and at the same time ask the broader systemic questions that may be affecting their ability to access the housing they want to live in.”

Sarah wishes that more people would take advantage of the services Open Communities and similar organizations offer–and reach out for help earlier. “You can just call for resources. You don’t have to know exactly what you need. You don’t need to be in crisis to call. I really wish people would come to us before they’re a year in default. If they’re worried about being able to afford their mortgage, talk to us now.” To help make more people aware of their services, Open Communities has been “talking to social workers in municipal government offices, in the tax assessor’s office, where people are already at when they’re struggling with a housing issue.” “They don’t have all the answers either,” Sarah explains. “So making them aware of our services and just continually showing up where people are already at is important to make sure more people get the help they need.”

Open Communities is also expanding their programs and outreach to support the aging populations in their area. “We are trying to reach out to people before they need subsidized housing to see if there’s a way, if they want, for them to age in place or age in their community.” In addition to letting more people know about their services, they are also pursuing partnerships with other organizations. “Aging in place means a lot of different things to different people,” Sarah explains. “There are all kinds of services people may need as they age. We’re learning from the community what those needs are and trying to find partners so that when we do our budgeting or foreclosure or mortgage education workshops, we also have another partner to talk about in-home care, chore services, to talk about all these other kinds of wraparound services.”

Sarah and other Open Communities’ staff members see the value in cultivating relationships with clients over long periods of time. Most pre-purchase clients “are not going to be mortgage-ready within the next year and that’s fine…Our housing counselors sometimes have stayed with clients for years. It’s very unusual for a social service to be there for years to go through the whole process with someone, to really build a rapport and be a resource for people.”

To help people stay engaged, Open Communities’ housing counselors work to meet clients where they are at and highlight the progress they are making even if they can’t reach their goal immediately. “The best way to retain folks is that you have both short-term and long-term goals, as well as just maintaining a regular meet-up schedule and checking in.” 

However, it is still challenging to work through difficult life circumstances. “If you’re making progress on your goals and then you have a medical emergency or your car breaks down and it derails your goals, sometimes it’s hard for people to feel encouraged and get back on track.” Sarah and other staff at Open Communities deeply value the strength of their relationships with their clients, which helps to support them through setbacks. “It’s not just about the number of clients we have, but the real care and time that we spend with them. That can make a really big difference, especially in communities with a lot of older adults, or where folks are really isolated and they don’t have a community safety net to make sure that things are going well with them.”

Open Communities is dedicated to continuing their programs and spreading awareness about housing counseling through the challenges their organization and community members may face. Sarah hopes that seeking counseling will eventually become commonplace for potential homebuyers. “The expectation that educating yourself, like driver’s education, is something that you need before buying a home, and that it should be appropriately valued and funded as well; that would be my long term ideal,” Sarah concludes.

Cornelius’ interest in the housing counseling career stemmed from his time working as a loan officer. He saw how confused many people were about the homebuying process and how easily someone could be pushed into signing agreements that they did not understand. “I saw other loan officers rushing people, urging people to ‘hurry up and sign here’ because a lot of it was commission based so you’ve got to meet the quota,” he explains. This setup is dangerous for uninformed buyers. “People get so excited about buying a home. They don’t understand that there’s a reason why there’s 30 pages of documents you have to sign and 99% of people don’t read it. They really count on someone to slow down and give them that education about what’s going on.” 

Ultimately, Cornelius realized, “I’ve got to get to them the step before me.” When Cornelius was a Loan Officer, he  was invited to present at a HUD Pre-Purchase group education event at Genesis Housing Development (which later merged with Far South CDC), and immediately after the HUD event he later called Genesis asking to become a housing counselor. “My passion is helping people, but my passion is also dealing with finance, so putting it together is how I started my career as a housing counselor,” Cornelius reflects.

The services offered by Far South CDC can help clients at any point in the homebuying process. “We can help anyone at any stage of housing, whether it’s rental, pre-purchase, post-purchase, or foreclosure prevention. We also do financial coaching and disaster counseling.” Whatever challenges the client might be facing, according to Cornelius, “Wherever you are, we’re going to meet you right there where you are.” Client intake starts with a pre-assessment “because a lot of times people may think ‘I want to do this’. We use [the pre-assessment] to get a little bit of background on what the situation is, because there are certain people, for example, that might want repairs on the home–but they’re three months behind [on mortgage payments], so we gotta slow them down. You’re in court, we gotta deal with the court situation first, then we can help with repairs.”

 Cornelius’ passions give him the drive he needs to continue to serve his clients. The stresses of being a housing counselor are often overlooked. “You really have to have a passion in this field,” Cornelius explains. “You’re going to have some people that just panic. They’re scared, they’ve never seen a court summons, they’ve never been asked to go to court for a mortgage. You have some people that are renters and the landlords are trying to do illegal evictions and we have to calm them down. They’re coming to us panicking and scared, but they’re depending on us to help guide them to fix the situation.”

 Despite the challenges, Cornelius recognizes that housing counseling really can change the course of his clients’ lives. “I’m going to treat you the way I would like to be treated. I’m going to put 100% in, like I would want someone to put 100% in to help me. That’s the way that I look at every client that comes. You treat people the way, if you were in desperate need and you came to an organization, how would you want to be treated?”

Organizations like Far South CDC help their communities become more stable. Access to housing counseling resources ensures that people can put down roots in a community and avoid displacement from their homes. “We help renters in the community, we help people in the community achieve the American Dream and get thousands of dollars of grant assistance to help in their journey, and we help people in the community get the most out of their homes by assisting with home repair options and resources,” Cornelius says. Housing Action is committed to building the field of housing counseling in both Illinois communities and beyond, aiming to help more low- to moderate-income families everywhere access the knowledge and resources they need to find and keep safe, affordable housing.

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.

Many people don’t know about the potential benefits of housing counseling services, which can help clients with a variety of challenges, including navigating purchasing a home, getting a mortgage, funding home repairs, and the foreclosure process. “We go to community events all the time and people say ‘I didn’t know,’” Maria says. “Our services tend to be free, although this depends on the program,” she adds. “We do have a couple of people that say ‘Oh really, you’re free?’ and they are hesitant to start the process, but once they realize [they’re] getting this information they come back and say ‘I am so glad that I went through this.’” 

H.O.M.E. DuPage has been a member of Housing Action for more than 20 years and is one of 34 sub-grantees in our Housing Action Counseling Network. When Housing Action was awarded just over $600,000 from HUD through a newly launched Homeownership Initiative program, we were able to sub-grant funds to a handful of agencies, including H.O.M.E. DuPage. The goal of the new program is to promote sustainable homeownership by providing access to quality housing counseling services and for housing counselors to build strong relationships with clients. “The purpose of that program is to get people to get a mortgage, to be able to purchase a home, and then come back. It’s purchasing a home and actually coming back to see where you’re at with your finances after you purchased,” Maria explained. The housing counselors have found that a major barrier to homeownership was budgeting. “A lot of the people‘s highest expense was fast food. So once they realized that they were spending $700-$800 a week on fast food, and that could actually help them if they reduced that amount. That can actually go towards the mortgage payment or the extra expenses of when you are now a homeowner and you have to do the repairs and the maintenance.”

The Homeownership Initiative also has provided a launching pad for the development of H.O.M.E. DuPage’s new post-purchase counseling workshop. Maria explains, “if you’re going to do pre-purchase counseling, we want to be able to see you all the way through and not [only] see you when you’re having problems making your mortgage payment.” 

Inspired by the grant’s follow-up structure, H.O.M.E. DuPage is developing their post-purchase workshop to provide a structured way to stay in touch with clients who have purchased homes. Although some are hesitant to attend a one-on-one appointment,  “if we say ‘we’re going to have a workshop and we’re going to talk about what your mortgage statement looks like,’or ‘we’re going to have a handyman talk about what you can do around the house for maintenance,’ maybe that’s going to incentivize them as well,” says Maria.

H.O.M.E. DuPage continues to expand their programming even beyond topics directly related to the grant. “One of our two coaches, Jill Kimak,  just received certification for the NACCC credit counseling. The other coach, Nereida Ortega, is working on that as well, and I just started providing reverse mortgage counseling,” Maria says. H.O.M.E. DuPage has a lot planned for the coming year, but all of it is essential to ensuring more Illinoisans can get and remain in their homes.

Most people have never heard of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) or thought much about data sets—but for the past eight years, David Young, Director of Capacity Building at Housing Action, has been working to show why both matter for housing counseling.

On October 1, MISMO released its new housing counseling dataset, concluding an eight-year effort by David and other housing counseling advocates to align the field’s data with the standards already used throughout the mortgage industry. Having these standards makes communication much easier among housing counseling client management systems, originations, and servicing systems.

In the past, limited availability and lack of standard data added hurdles to collaboration. Recognizing the need to fix this, the NHRC (National Housing Resource Center), a national housing counseling advocacy organization, spearheaded an effort to collect and standardize data. David and his partners undertook the long process of reaching out to over 1,000 housing counseling agencies across the country and combed through over 4,000 existing MISMO data points to find information relevant to housing counseling.

“We did not expect it to be an eight year journey when it first started in 2017,” said David. “But the publication of the data set on October 1 couldn’t have happened at a better time, since right now it’s also critical for us to show how important housing counseling is for our communities and to have specific data on how our programs help households. We will work with our client management system developers, HUD’s office of housing counseling, and financial institutions and servicers to socialize and implement this data set to benefit consumers.”

David Young (far left) facilitates a panel discussion on housing counseling data at the 2025 MISMO Spring Summit

David gave an example of how the data set could help in an individual situation. “If a mortgage holder were late on their mortgage, the servicer should be able to see which housing counseling agency they went to and refer them back so they get the assistance they need before their company goes into foreclosure.

”The faster, simplified data sharing will also allow housing counseling agencies to get ahead of problems more quickly and better serve their clients. It will also make it easier to quantify and demonstrate the effectiveness of housing counseling, which can help to raise awareness of housing counseling services. 

“Consumers that go through pre-purchase education and counseling are more likely to be approved and less likely to default on their mortgage, but because we weren’t capturing the right data, we weren’t able to show that,” David explained. “Now, with consistent data, we will be able to.”

While a lot of work lies ahead to ensure the data set  is used widely and efficiently, its release is a large step forward for growing the field of housing counseling and ensuring that programs can help as many people as possible.

For Immediate Release: March 10, 2025
Housing Action Illinois Contact: Kristin Ginger, Director of Communications and Development, 312-854-3333
Midland States Bank Contact: Anna Strong, Marketing Manager, 217-540-2838

CHICAGO, IL – Housing Action Illinois is pleased to announce a $12,000 contribution by Midland States Bank. The grant, provided by the Midland States Bank Foundation, will support Housing Action’s Housing Counseling Career Path training.

“HUD-certified housing counselors are unbiased experts who educate and empower individuals and families. The Housing Counseling Career Path creates a new generation of housing counselors who are in step with the concerns of our communities and equipped to help clients reach their home goals, whether through purchasing a first home or learning how to manage finances. With the support of Midland States Bank, we can create opportunities for more participants to join our training and get the skills and knowledge they need to support communities that need it most. This is particularly important for communities like Joliet, which have a shortage of housing counselors,” says Wanda Collins, Capacity Building Specialist at Housing Action Illinois. Housing Action is hosting a series of the training in partnership with Joliet Junior College and Moraine Valley Community College this March.

Left to right: Sharon Legenza and Wanda Collins of Housing Action Illinois, Cornell Lurry of Midland States Bank, David Young of Housing Action Illinios, Michael O’Brien of Midland States Bank

For more than 35 years, Housing Action Illinois has brought together organizations from across the state to work together to expand affordable housing and end homelessness. Through its Capacity Building program, the statewide coalition provides training, consulting, and resources to help housing organizations—especially housing counseling agencies–better serve communities. Housing Action Illinois’ Housing Counseling Career Path is a comprehensive program designed to help participants understand the six core principles of housing counseling and prepare to pass the HUD Individual Certification Exam.

“Together with our Community Impact Investment Statement, the Midland States Bank Foundation is a powerful way for us to give back to our communities,” commented Jeffrey G. Ludwig, President and CEO of Midland States Bancorp, Inc. “The funds we set aside from the Bank’s profits help us put our company’s culture in action to benefit the communities we serve.”

The Midland States Bank Foundation supports the general welfare, education and health of the communities where the Bank operates. Since its creation in 2011, the Foundation has contributed more than $1,900,000 to non-profit organizations throughout Midland’s footprint.

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About Housing Action Illinois

Housing Action is a statewide coalition that has been leading the movement to end homelessness, address the shortage of affordable rental housing, and expand homeownership opportunities in Illinois for more than 35 years. Our 190+ member organizations include housing counseling agencies, homeless service providers, developers of affordable housing, and policymakers. We bring everyone together to work toward our vision of an Illinois where everyone has a stable, good home.

About Midland States Bancorp, Inc.

Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is a community-based financial holding company headquartered in Effingham, Illinois, and is the sole shareholder of Midland States Bank. As of March 31, 2024, the Company had total assets of approximately $7.83 billion, and its Wealth Management Group had assets under administration of approximately $3.89 billion. The Company provides a full range of commercial and consumer banking products and services and business equipment financing, merchant credit card services, trust and investment management, insurance and financial planning services. For additional information, visit https://www.midlandsb.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/midland-states-bank.