The American Dream for All
By: Connie Der Torossian, HUD Housing Counseling Program Manager
USA Homeownership Foundation Housing Counseling Department has been super busy this year, and has already counseled and educated 416 individuals on credit improvement, financial fitness, VA Loans, the Home Buying process and Foreclosure Prevention. Last year, we were able to assist a total of 975 clients and this year we are on track to surpass that number. One successful client is Adam Siler, who outreached to us in August 2017 for help improving his Credit and helping him prepare to become a home owner. Thomas Griffin, our HUD Housing Counselor, reviewed Adam’s credit with him and provided him an assessment and action plan. Adam’s credit score was in the low 400’s and he was ready to give up any hope for being a homeowner in the coming years. Thomas created a counseling plan with action items and deadlines and counseled him that everything would start once he accepted he needed to change his behavior with money starting immediately. Adam’s wife joined in the counseling process and they both agreed to follow Thomas’ action plan was agreed to and although it seems unlikely to turn around the many years of poor money management, the prospect of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel began to happen. Adam and his wife followed their counselor’s advice of creating and sticking to their monthly budget, tracking expenses and learning the difference between wants and needs when it came to spending money. They paid their monthly obligations on time, negotiated with their collection accounts and got their credit back on track. The counseling 12
has given them the hope to realizing his dream of homeownership for his family. Adam and his wife are now debt free as of March 2019 and his credit score went from the low 400 to the 600s. Adam and his wife are now saving for their first home and are well on their way to make that dream a reality in 2019. Housing Counseling works and we are so excited to help our clients make their dream of homeownership come true. In other news, we received a generous grant from Wells Fargo National Housing Foundation to support the Housing Counseling Department and its efforts to implement a national 10 city Veteran Housing Summit effort to enhance our efforts to educate Veterans and Active Military on their VA Loan benefit, credit and homeownership. So far, we’ve completed 3 of the 10 events and they have been a huge success. Thomas Griffin our HUD Housing Counselor recently passed his HUD Certification test, a recent requirement initiated by US Department of HUD to elevate the level of housing counselors. Congratulations Thomas and keep up the great work! We’ve also added a new staff member, Monique Brenklin, as our new Program Coordinator, a big Welcome to Monique! If you have clients who need help with credit, budgeting, homeownership or foreclosure prevention, please contact the Housing Counseling department at www.VetHomeOwnership.com or by calling 888-273-7267.