To amend the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 to provide reforms to housing counseling and financial literacy programs.

Key Points

• Would require HUD to make sure housing counseling grant money goes to a mix of groups that serve both urban and rural areas.
• Gives HUD clearer power to review counseling agencies, including on-site visits, and check whether they follow program rules.
• Lets HUD compare individual counselors’ results by looking at how often counseled borrowers fall behind on certain government-backed home loans in similar markets.
• Allows HUD to require more training, retesting, or suspend a counselor’s certification if they’re found not competent, as long as it won’t leave an area without enough counselors.
• Requires lenders/servicers to give borrowers who are 30+ days behind on certain government-backed mortgages a chance to get foreclosure-mitigation counseling; some costs could be paid by a federal mortgage insurance fund.