“Making the American dream a reality for all.”

 

CLIENT INTAKE

Upon completion of your counseling session with your counselor, you are given an Action Plan to aid you in the expectations from USA Homeownership Foundation, Inc.. Please understand that there is a high volume of clients who are in similar situations and we are trying our best to meet their needs as our capacity will allow.

1. USA Homeowership Foundation, Inc.’s workshop provides counseling advice through its counselors, educators, and its Partners/Supporters. Its is your sole responsibility to seek any future services that may be needed. This file and supporting document will be retained by VAREP and information provided might be shard with USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., partners, supporters or 3rd parties to provide service to you.

2. USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., may receiver funding from the US Dept of HUD and/or HUD Intermediaries and as such, is required to a) share some of my personal information with HUD program administrators or their agents; b) to open my file to be reviewed for purposes of program monitoring, compliance, c) to conduct follow up with me related to program evaluation.

3. USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., and its nonprofit partners provide housing counseling after which I will receive a written action plan consisting of recommendation for handling my finances, credit, and possibly including referrals to housing agencies as appropriate.

4.   A counselor may answer and provide information, but not give legal advice. If I want legal advice, I will be referred for appropriate assistance.

5.  USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., and its nonprofit partners provide information and education on numerous loan products and housing programs and I further understand that the housing counseling I receive from USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., in no way obligates me to choose any of these particular products or housing programs.

6.  I may be referred to other housing services of the organization, another agency or agencies as appropriate that may be able to assist with my particular concerns that have been identified. I also understand that I am not obligated to use any of the services offered to me.

7.  USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., hosts Workshops to help me/participating individuals among other services distinguish legal problems from non-legal problems, and to refer them to service providers, agencies, organizations, or other lawyer sources to provide them with any necessary substantive legal advice or representation. I further understand that by signing and dating this form, USA Homeownership Foundation Inc., and its counselors do not and cannot provide legal advice or guidance in the course of the meetings with Participants, and do not establish or create any type of attorney-client relationships with Participants. I also understand that after consultation with counselor, Participants are urged to promptly consult with the service providers, agencies, organizations, or other lawyer referral sources to which the Participants have been referred for follow up on their potential legal issues.

I affix my signature below in agreement of what is stated in this Counseling Agreement.

USA Home Ownership Foundation is a nonprofit program, a 501c3 nonprofit, and we are committed to assuring the privacy of individuals and/or families who have contacted us for assistance. We realize that the concerns you bring to us are highly personal in nature and we are committed to the responsible managements, use and protection of personal information. We assure you that all information shared both orally and in writing will be managed within legal and ethical considerations. You “nonpublic personal information, such as your total debt information , income, living expenses and personal information concerning your financial circumstances, will be provided to creditors, program monitors, and others only with your authorization and signature on the counseling agreement. We may also use the anonymous aggregated case file information for the purpose of evaluating our services, gathering valuable research information and designing future programs.

Types of Information Gathered

We collect personal information to support our housing counseling program and to aid your housing counseling needs. We collect personal information about you and we may disclose the following kinds of personal information about you:

1.  I/We also understand and consent to the disclosure of public and non-public personal information by and between HomeFree-USA, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), the California Housing Finance Agency, and/or its agents or other authorized representative.

2.  Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, your creditors. Or others, such as your account balance, payment history, parties to transactions and credit usage; and

3.  Information we receive from a consumer credit reporting agency, such as your credit bureau reports, your credit history and your credit worthiness.

4.  Information we receive from a consumer credit reporting agency, such as your credit bureau reports, your credit history and your credit worthiness.

You May Opt-Out of Certain Disclosures

1.  You have the opportunity to “opt-out,” we will not be able to answer your questions from your creditors. If at any time, you wish to change your decision with regard to your “opt-out” you may call us at 951.444.7365 and do so.

Release of Your Information to Third Parties

1.  So long as you have not opted-out, we may disclose some or all of the information that we collect, as described above, to your creditors or third parties where we have determined that it would be helpful to you, would aid us in counseling you, or is a requirement of grant awards which make our services possible.

2.  We may also disclose any nonpublic personal information about you or former customer to anyone as permitted by law. (e.g., if we are compelled by legal process)

Confidentiality and Security

  We restrict access to personal information about you to those of our employees, volunteers and affiliated organizations who need to know that information to provide services to you. We maintain physical and electronic procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information. Our safeguards strive to comply with federal regulations to guard your personal information.

 

Directing Us Not To Make Disclosures to Third Parties

If you prefer that we not disclose personal information about you to unaffiliated third parties, you may opt out of those disclosures, that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than disclosures permitted by law).

1.       If you wish to opt out of disclosures to unaffiliated third parties other than nonprofit organizations involved in community development, you may check the box of the Privacy Choice Form below.

 

PRIVACY CHOICE FORM

If you want to opt out, that is direct us not to make disclosure about your personal information (other than disclosures permitted by law) as described in this notice, check the box below to indicate your privacy choice:

 

Client Disclosure

USA Homeownership Foundation is pleased that you have come to us for services and we are looking forward to working with you. We are here to assist you in resolving your housing and financial issues. You are welcome to use services other than those provided by this agency and we appreciate you informing your counselor if you decide to change agencies.

Our services may include:

·         The gathering essential demographic and financial information to help us resolve your housing need via intake forms and submission of documentation.

·         An assessment of your housing, credit and financial situation

·         A case management plan that provides instructions and identifies resources for resolving your housing, credit and financial needs

·         Individual face to face, telephone, internet, and/or group counseling designed to guide you through the process of resolving housing needs

·         Follow-up calls, emails, and/or letters to track the outcome of our services

1)      Pre-purhcase Counseling = Preparing for Home Purchase

2)      Pre-purchase Homebuyer Education Workshops = Online Classes

3)      Fair Housing Pre-purchase Education Workshops = Group

4)      Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling = Mortgage Assistance

5)      Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolutions Workshops = Group

6)      Financial Management/Budget Counseling = Budget, Credit, Financial Counseling

7)      Financial, Budgeting and Credit Workshops = Group Education to improve Credit, Budget, and Financial Management

8)      Home Improvement and Rehabilitation Counseling=Counseling after home purchase

9)      Home Improvement and Rehabilitation Workshops=Group

10)   Rental Counseling=landlord tenant, fair housing, and eviction counseling

11)   Rental Workshops=Group

12)   Services for Homeless Counseling=Counseling and resources to assist and prevent homelessness

13)   Homelessness Prevention Workshops=Group

14)   Predatory Lending Workshops=Group education to prevent lending, real estate scams, and contractor and credit fraud

USA Homeownership Foundation upholds the highest standards of customer service. As such, our staff members providing these services will adhere to the following guidelines:

·         USA Homeownership Foundation does not offer legal counsel or services. Our staff members will provide counseling, group education and instructional information only regarding your housing, personal financial management or credit situation under this program

·         USA Homeownership Foundation does not provide debt consolidation services nor will any member of the USA Homeownership Foundation’s staff takeover or assume responsibility for the finances of any participating client

·         USA Homeownership Foundation does not pay or receive fees or other considerations for referrals to our from any program administered by us

·         USA Homeownership Foundation staff members will not recommend that clients participate or engage in any services whereby the staff members themselves or any member of their immediate family have a financial interest

·         No USA Homeownership Foundation staff member will disclose any personal information without proper authorization of the participant

·         USA Homeownership Foundation strongly believes in and promotes housing choice and educates our clients to shop for the best person to assist them. To that end, USA Homeownership Foundation does not endorse any realtor or lender. Participants in our Pre-Purchase Counseling/Credit/VA/Down payment Assistance Programs are encouraged to shop for and select the lender and realtor that best suits their needs

·         USA Homeownership Foundation, in many instances, will need to pull your credit report to assess the condition of your credit either to determine your readiness for ownership or to assist in the resolution of mortgage delinquency.

·         Central to USA Homeownership Foundation mission is the elimination of housing discrimination and all of USA Homeownership Foundation programs and services are required to educate participants regarding fair housing laws

·         USA Homeownership Foundation employs persons who are qualified to provide the services rendered. To that end, all USA Homeownership Foundation employs persons who are qualified to provide the services rendered. To that end, all USA Homeownership Foundation employs persons who are qualified to provide the services rendered. To that end, all USA Homeownership Foundation housing counselors are required to be certified. New counselors employed by the USA Homeownership Foundation have one year to acquire such certification, which can be obtained through the Association of Housing Counselors, the National Federation of Housing Counselors or Neighbor Works.

Please be advised that you, the client, are not obligated to receive, purchase or utilize any other services offered by USA Homeownership Foundation, or its exclusive partners, to receive housing counseling services. This certifies that I have read and understood the above statement of disclosure.