HCCI has HUD-approved counselors to meet new regulations

Housing and Credit Counseling in Topeka is working toward having its staff compliant with new federal Housing and Urban Development regulations by a deadline next year.

“Back in 2017, they started making some changes to make sure counseling was consistent and everybody was doing the same thing as far as having the right material to talk to people about home buying, about budgeting and things of that nature,” said Chris Burk with HCCI. “They set a deadline by August of 2020, you have to have HUD certified counselors on staff to be able to do homebuyer counseling and things of that nature.”

Two HCCI counselors have passed their certification tests.

“Making sure that everybody’s on the same page, telling everybody about all the stuff consistently, as far as different home loan products and debt to income ratio and how that’s figured with the different loan components, things of that nature,” said Burk.

The intent is for everyone in the office to be certified by the deadline.

“We have four more counselors that are studying as we speak and will be taking it later on this spring and summer,” said Burk.

HCCI, founded in 1972, has been HUD Approved since 1978.