According to a recent column that appeared in The Washington Post, federal budget cuts for fiscal year 2012 include $88 million of funding to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) that would have provided housing counseling.
"It is unreasonable, in the midst of a housing crisis that has financially devastated hundreds of thousands of households, that we are taking away access to free or low-cost counseling that helps these families," Michelle Singletary writes.
In 2010, the Champlain Housing Trust helped 187 Vermont households avoid foreclosure and provided counseling to 309 others that were preparing to buy a home, 90 of whom did.