The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the following updates to its housing counseling program:
- The HECM Roster exam is now available and can be accessed at hecmexam.org. The exam was unavailable for several weeks while HUD found a replacement vendor to manage the exam process. The exam is now managed by Ajanta Consulting Inc. Questions regarding scheduling and the exam should be sent to: hecmexam@ajantaconsulting.com. According to one of our counselor members, HUD recently issued a waiver that grandfathers in anyone who wasn’t able to take the exam when it was offline. The waiver gives counselors until June to take and pass the exam to remain on the HECM Counseling Roster.
- HUD awarded $51.4 million in housing counseling grants to 177 HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and intermediary organizations. In addition to supporting reverse mortgage counseling, the funds that were awarded will support first-time homebuyers and homeowners and renters who are facing foreclosure or eviction and need help. HUD awarded an additional $2 million to train new HECM counselors and provide training on the Department’s housing counselor certification exam.
- HUD appointed four new members to the Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee, bringing membership back to the full 12 members authorized by statute. The new members include Gabe Del Rio, President and Chief Executive Officer, Homeownership Council of America; Daniel Garcia, Vice President/Senior CRA Lending Officer, First Horizon Bank; Angie Liou, Executive Director, Asian Community Development Corp.; and Richard Verrillo, Director of Business Development, Navicore Solutions. Last year, Carol Ann Dujanovich of 1st Nations Reverse Mortgage was appointed to the same committee, making her the first person from the reverse mortgage industry to serve on the Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee.