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Wausau committee approves MOU to outsource HUD-required homebuyer counseling
Summary
The committee approved a memorandum of understanding with the Idaho Housing and Finance Association (doing business as Findlay Home) to provide homebuyer education and counseling for down-payment assistance clients; staff said outsourcing saves on internal HUD reporting costs.
WAUSAU, Wis. — The Wausau Economic Development Committee on Dec. 2 approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, doing business as Findlay Home, to provide homebuyer education and counseling services for city clients using down-payment assistance.
City staff said the arrangement will be less costly than maintaining in-house HUD reporting systems and will allow the city's HUD-certified counselor to focus on other block-grant responsibilities. "Instead of us providing the necessary counseling, we can outsource it to an agency very inexpensively," a staff member said, explaining the city would pay for counseling services for its clients who use the city's down-payment assistance programs.
The committee discussed language access. Alder Killian asked how services will be provided to Wausau's Hmong population; staff replied that statewide Hmong-speaking counseling providers are not available, so services would rely on interpreters or local Hmong-speaking lenders and community partners (for example, the Hmong American Center) to facilitate outreach and translation when the city's clients need one-on-one assistance.
Motion to approve the MOU was made by Alder Killian and seconded by Alder Neal; the committee approved the motion.
The MOU creates a partnership page anyone can access, but staff said the city would only pay for counseling services for clients enrolled in the city's programs. Committee members thanked the presenter and moved on to subsequent agenda items.
