The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a significant expansion of its housing counselor certification exam, now offering the exam and training materials in Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. This announcement, made by Deputy Assistant Secretary David Berenbaum at the UnidosUS Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, marks a critical step in making housing counseling more accessible to non-English speaking communities.
Assistant Secretary for Housing Julia Gordon emphasized HUD’s commitment to removing barriers in the housing market, stating, “We want the HUD certification process to support housing counselors who can capably assist a diverse range of client populations and languages.”
The updated certification exam not only includes new language options but also features revised content that reflects current client needs. The enhancements to the exam ensure that all HUD-certified housing counselors, who serve over one million clients each year, are equipped with the latest knowledge and skills to provide high-quality housing counseling services. This includes financial education, foreclosure prevention, and disaster recovery counseling.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Berenbaum highlighted the importance of these updates, noting that in-language resources allow for culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate counseling, making the services of HUD-certified counselors more relevant and accessible.
In July, HUD, through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), made available translated versions of 19 single-family mortgage documents used in the servicing of FHA-insured mortgages. These documents will be available in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. The educational resources are accessible from FHA’s language access web page and will assist lenders, servicers, housing counselors, and other FHA program participants in explaining information related to FHA-insured mortgages to those with limited English proficiency prior to the execution of these documents in English, as required by law.
This new set of translations augments the 40 previously published translated mortgage origination documents and homeownership education resources already available to consumers. Together, these translated documents will remove language access barriers for FHA consumers whose preferred language is not English.
For those looking to find a HUD-approved housing counseling agency, HUD offers an online search tool at hud.gov/findacounselor or assistance via their toll-free line at (800) 569-4287.
