Counseling Activities

The San Antonio Housing Trust is a nationally HUD certified housing counseling program integrating homebuyer-counseling elements into all of its programs.

The San Antonio Housing Trust receives funding from the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Citigroup Foundation, Freddie Mac, the Housing Partnership Network, and other partners

These programs include the Mortgage Credit Certificate / Mortgage Revenue Bond Program, the Affordable Parade of Homes®. Following our Declaration of Trust, not only are we able to serve clients who are 80% or below of the median income, but also, clients who are between the 80 to 120% of the median income.

The San Antonio Housing Trust receives daily clientele referrals for counseling services not only from the local HUD field office, City of San Antonio, San Antonio Housing Authority, San Antonio Development Agency, and Habitat for Humanity but also from Fannie Mae and other lenders in the marketplace. In addition the SAHT accepts "walk-in" counseling clients.

The clients are evaluated on their individual as to counseling needs and housing options. The Housing Trust offers four (5) types of homeownership counseling in both English and Spanish:(including written materials):

· Homeownership Sessions

· Credit Counseling

· Financial Management

· Better Jobs, Training and Intervention Counseling

· Default and Foreclosure Prevention Counseling

All four types of counseling utilize many creative teaching methods such as role playing, games and visual aides. An interactive counseling approach helps clients become proactive in their individual financial management.The creation of the Homebuying Financial/Workbook in both Spanish and English has been an essential tool in reaching all of San Antonio's potential homebuyers.

Coordination and Comprehensiveness of Counseling Activities

The San Antonio Housing Trust partners and provides funding for several housing initiatives in San Antonio. Initiatives have included the Affordable Parade of Homes® with the City of San Antonio and the Greater San Antonio Builders Association (GSABA); Rent-to-Home with Fannie Mae Foundation and Archstone Corporation; in Bexar County with Bexar County Housing Finance Corporation with the 2004 joint $42 Million Mortgage Bond Program with 17 local and national mortgage lenders among others. We work with these organizations to provide counseling for these and other programs.iSmaller housing counseling collaborations have been developed with the Enterprise Foundation's Making Housing Accessible, Neighborhood Housing Services, San Antonio Alternative Housing Corporation, UU Housing Assistance Corporation, San Antonio HOPE (Fannie Mae), City of San Antonio, the United Way, GSABA, the State of Texas, University of Texas, National Hispanic Housing Council, Communities Organized for Public Service, Habitat for Humanity and the local school districts. These collaborations include such activities as housing fairs, housing design guideline / policy development, technical assistance to smaller organizations developing homebuyer counseling programs, and identification of housing resources, specifically for children and single head of household families..

Housing Counselors

Our Housing Counselors are trained and certified to provide up-to-date counseling services. Celina Gonzalez has completed coursework in a wide variety of training programs. She has received certifications in the following:

• Housing Counseling, NeighborWorks, May 2004
• Advanced Foreclosure Training, NeighborWorks, May 2004
• Maximizing Credit Counseling, NeighborWorks, May 2004
• Train the Trainer, TDHCA, June 2004
• Sustaining Homeownership, JP Morgan Chase; June 2005

Leo Ramos has numerous certifications over his 40 years of experience in affordable housing including:

• National Housing Counseling certification
• Anti-Predatory Lending Practices
• Loss Mitigation

Mr. Ramos also is our Asset Manager with experience in Market Analysis, Site Preparation, Feasibility Analysis, Development Team Selection, Application for Funding (HUD, FmHA, TDHCA, & Conventional) Project Implementation, Construction, Construction Monitoring, Project Evaluation, and Closing.Yolie Rios has been working full time with the San Antonio Housing Trust Foundation as the sole housing counselor since November 1996. Ms. Rios, when hired, had over one year direct affordable housing counseling experience. Prior to then, Ms. Rios worked for nearly 20 years in Human Resources, locally, nationally and internationally. The Housing Trust was fortunate to hire her as she was completing a subdivision on San Antonio's eastside. She joined our team with established contacts, including lenders, realtors, insurance agents, and especially potential homebuyers. She is organized, effectively manages her time and is a good listener, but most importantly, Ms. Rios is dedicated to every client that contacts our office. They have the dream to become homeowners and she diligently helps to make their dreams a reality.

She developed the start up operation of the Housing Trust Counseling Program by creating a four stage evaluation system to qualify potential buyers. She has created the homebuying manual for pre- and post-counseling in Spanish and in English to use as a visual aide tool for clients. Client intake has increased from 180 clients and 1042 clients. Ms. Rios excellent marketing and outreach efforts has increased the Housing Trust's lender partnerships from three to a growing 14 local and national lenders. Ms. Rios is an asset to the organization, our partners, and our clients.

Her goals include HUD certification to complement the State certification and Fannie Mae certification. Additionally, Ms. Rios will attend the "Train the Trainer" Workshop offered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Fannie Mae homebuyer counseling training. The Counseling Coordinator, Rosalind Diggs, assists with the program administration.

Homeownership Sessions

The homebuyinghome buying counseling workshops, or "Home Work: Working for a Home," has served as a venue to encourage potential homebuyers to learn about buying a home, dealing with their credit issues and the importance of reestablishing one's credit.

This is accomplished by teaching the participants to accept responsibility of their credit problems and to overcome these obstacles. Essential to this particular lesson is goal setting and how to stay focused on reestablishing good credit. They leave the workshops with a healthy understanding of their responsibilities. The number of homebuyers assisted under this component has been approximately 400 total potential homebuyers.

Credit Counseling

One-on-one home buying counseling continues to be an integral part of the Housing Trust counseling curriculum. Many times potential homebuyers have issues, which go, beyond the traditional scope of a workshop. Individual home buying sessions allow the Housing Trust counselors to prioritize the clients' specific credit issues so that they can learn how to resolve them over whatever time period may be necessary.

The goals for each session are divided into three-month periods during which time the client focuses on set priorities to reach their goals. The most useful tool is the Goal Summary Worksheet. The Creditors Worksheet and Monthly Expense Worksheet. These materials, available in both English and Spanish, give the potential homebuyers visual aides needed to comprehend their financial situation, giving them the understanding that it is manageable.

Post Purchase Counseling

The Post-Purchase Counseling Workshops focus on assisting families with issues such as financial management (budgeting, savings, controlling credit card spending, utilities, and prioritizing purchases), loan closing process and expectations (includes insurance needs and comparison shopping), responsibilities of being a homeowner (includes homeowners association, home maintenance and respecting the neighborhood). Role playing and money games are used to help the counselor and the clients understand their spending habits. The participants begin by taking a test "What is your money style?" (also available in both Spanish and English). The housing counselor has developed two worksheets: one determines the clientsclient’s monthly income budget and the other shows their monthly bills. This allows them to see where the money is coming from and where it is going. Paper money is used for better visual understanding. In 1999 Post-Purchase Counseling Workshops will be attended by approximately 200 new homebuyers. Clients served under this counseling component in 1999 will be approximately 50 to 100, depending on program needs.

Default & Foreclosure Prevention Counseling

Default and Foreclosure Prevention Counseling involves working with clients who are undergoing life obstacles such as employment, and health problems whichproblems, which are jeopardizing them as homeowners due to the resulting financial setbacks. As a result the counseling approach is substantively different from the other counseling activities. A partnership with the City of San Antonio's Community Initiatives Department and the local lending community has allowed the Housing Trust's Counseling Program to successfully assist these clients. Community Initiatives has programs that assist clients with their mortgage payments and utility bills, and local lenders respect the Housing Trust's work with homebuyers and are willing to be flexible in working out solutions for each client. The Housing Trust counselor maintains a relationship with the client to deal with the long-term outcomes of the problems they are facing. A tight budget and repayment plan is determined with each client and close monitoring of the situation is maintained. This number is kept low due to the Housing Trust's persistent Prevention Counseling.

Sustainable Affordable Housing Through Better Jobs, Training and Intervention Counseling Program (BJTICP)

The Citigroup Foundation provides funds to the San Antonio Housing Trust Foundation in order to assist families to become economically and financially self-reliant. Through financial education, families learn the necessary skills to develop their assets. This helps families invest in their future by purchasing a home and/or saving for future educational endeavors. The goals of the Better Jobs, Training and Intervention Counseling program are the following:

• Assist a families to become financially self-reliant through financial budget management and financial family counseling;
• Help families through intervention counseling ward off foreclosures on their home;
• Maintain community stability and mitigate negative impact on neighborhoods;
• Maintain establish affordable family housing stock.