During the COVID-19 pandemic, owners and renters were at risk of losing their homes through mortgage delinquency or nonpayment of rent. This report focuses on a federal intervention designed to support housing stability: the Housing Stability Counseling Program (HSCP). This $100 million program, run by NeighborWorks America and funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), was designed to strengthen and expand housing counseling capacity across the US to support people facing housing insecurity during the pandemic.
This report examines HSCP design, program implementation, housing counseling agency experiences, and reported client outcomes. It situates HSCP in the larger landscape of various pandemic response programs and provides lessons for future housing counseling interventions during times of crisis.
Why This Matters
This research is important to federal, state, and local governments; to policymakers, program administrators, and housing counseling agencies; and to the real estate and mortgage industries because it identifies actionable insights from NeighborWorks America’s rapid implementation of HSCP that can inform future housing crisis responses. The research explores the value of the nation’s housing counseling network and the work of NeighborWorks America to complement other housing crisis interventions. It also sheds light on the needs of renters facing housing instability during crises, which was a unique feature of HSCP.
What We Found
We found that HSCP program design and execution delivered crisis-level services to clients in need in a timely and well-targeted manner, effectively built existing housing counseling structures, and created value for clients, the housing counseling industry, government officials, policymakers, private lenders, and private landlords. Further, NeighborWorks America built in several feedback loops and then had the flexibility necessary to alter practices in response to the pandemic’s urgent and changing nature.
In terms of its reach, HSCP
- counseled 91,443 clients (as of July 31, 2024),
- engaged more than 800 counseling agencies,
- served an equal mix of owner and renter households, and met statutory targets to reach low- and moderate-income households, households of color, and
- targeted geographies across the US.
HSCP also
- rapidly increased housing counseling for renters,
- efficiently trained the counseling industry on pandemic-related issues,
- provided crucial outreach and marketing materials, and
- ensured counseling quality and built trust.
A few challenges grew from the nature of building a new program during a pandemic and sustaining impact long term. Some grantees found reporting requirements challenging and wished for greater coordination with other pandemic-era interventions. The future provides another challenge: as resources for HSCP and other pandemic-era interventions have wound down, crisis-related housing instability still occurs. It will be important in the years ahead to provide enough resources to retain the infrastructure necessary to rapidly expand housing counseling efficiently and effectively during any future crisis.
How We Did It
Our report is based on an analysis of NeighborWorks America program data that included client characteristics and counselor-reported outcomes, data from the US Census Bureau and the Treasury Department, a survey fielded to all HSCP grantees, and 34 interviews with NeighborWorks staff, grantees, other stakeholders and clients.
