Notice to Housing Counseling Agencies on the Government Shutdown:
A shutdown as you may know, the Federal government’s spending authority expired at midnight, Monday September 30, 2013. Therefore most HUD programs have been temporarily interrupted and most HUD employees have been told they cannot work. Like all Federal agencies, HUD is required to develop a plan in case there is a lapse in appropriations, often referred to as a government shutdown.
Now that the government shutdown has occurred, HUD is beginning to implement that plan. The plan is a publicly available document and it is posted on HUD’s website at: https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=HUDContingencyPlan2013.pdf
Below are several Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to the government shutdown that the Office of Housing Counseling has prepared for all program participants:
Q: Will the Housing Counseling System (HC) be available to HUD-approved agencies?
A: The Housing Counseling System (HCS) will not be available. Consequently, counseling agencies will be unable to update agency profile information, submit activity data, or otherwise utilize the functionality in HCS. Once HCS back online, FHA will require all counseling agencies to submit activity data for the shutdown period retroactively.
Q: Will clients be able to utilize Housing Counseling search engines?
A: The www.hud.gov website will be available in “Maintenance Mode” only. This means that www.hud.gov will be up but there will be no updates made to pages on the site. As a result, HUD’s website housing counseling search functionality, and similarly HUD’s toll free number to search for counseling services, will still be available to households seeking counseling services. However, with HCS down, the data behind the search functionality will not be updated.
Q: Will HUD-approved agencies be able to access HUD grant funds through the LOCCS System?
A: While the LOCCS system should be functioning, there will be no HUD staff available to approve requests for disbursements. Consequently, no grant disbursements will occur during a shut down.
Q: Will the “Housing Counseling Industry Conference Call on The Housing Counseling Program proposed rule and FHA Mortgagee Letter 2013-26 – Back to Work” previously scheduled for Friday, October 4, 2013 at 2:30PM Eastern Time still occur as scheduled?
A: During the government shut down all previously scheduled HUD conference calls, training and outreach events are canceled. These will be rescheduled once the government reopens.
Please visit the HUD website at www.hud.gov for further updates.
