As foreclosure warnings reach a ten-year high, MHC calls on the Administration to restore funding and sustain the advisors who help Minnesotans buy and keep their homes
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Homeownership Center (MHC) assures Minnesotans that free homeownership advising remains available statewide, even as the White House moves to cancel $56.1 million in federal housing counseling funds. The rescission request, sent to Congress on September 25, just days before the federal fiscal year ends on September 30, would cut $56.1 Million of the FY2025 federal grant round that supports HUD-certified counseling agencies nationwide.
While we advocate to restore this critical funding, help is still available to Minnesotans who are preparing to buy a home or worried about keeping the one they have. Minnesotans who are looking for help can connect with a free homeownership advisor through MHC’s statewide network of 28 organizations. Advisors can be found at www.hocmn.org, or by calling MHC at 651-659-9336 or toll-free 866-462-6466.
“The homeownership advisors we support are open for business,” said Roxanne Young Kimball, President and CEO of the Minnesota Homeownership Center. “If you’re facing a foreclosure notice, planning your first home purchase, or want to advance your financial wellness, please reach out. This is not the time to cut the help that everyday people use to navigate a financial system that is harder to access and less forgiving than ever. Advisors support families to understand their options, avoid predatory deals, and stay in their homes when times get hard.”
The cut comes as Minnesota homeowners face mounting pressure. Pre-foreclosure notices statewide reached 18,616 in 2025, up 28 percent from the year before and the highest level since 2015, according to data collected by MHC. Rising costs for housing, insurance, and everyday necessities, combined with stagnant incomes, are leaving more Minnesota homeowners cost-burdened and financially insecure.
The White House’s justification for the rescission characterizes housing counseling as a divisive, “DEI-centric” enterprise. This is a false characterization. Homeownership advisors are certified by HUD itself and serve Minnesotans in rural communities, suburbs, and cities alike. The work of homeownership advising is about reaching the people of Minnesota: supporting renters as they plan for the future, helping families gain the stability of homeownership, and helping homeowners keep the homes they’ve worked hard to obtain. Many of the homeowners helped through foreclosure prevention counseling are seniors who have paid their mortgages faithfully for years and are now navigating rising property taxes, insurance, and living costs on fixed incomes that aren’t keeping pace.
Minnesotans have seen what happens when families are left to navigate the mortgage market alone. At the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2010, Minnesota homeowners received more than 71,000 pre-foreclosure notices. As predatory lending fueled that crisis, homeownership advisors stepped in to disrupt it, working one-on-one with homeowners to untangle unaffordable loans, negotiate with servicers, and find paths to keep families in their homes. Since 2008, MHC and its network have helped more than 40,000 Minnesota households avoid foreclosure, preserving more than $3.2 billion in community wealth. When the COVID-19 pandemic brought one of the worst economic disruptions of our time, housing counseling organizations again partnered with government to help homeowners weather the crisis by connecting homeowners to obtain federal aid. Minnesota law recognizes the role that homeownership advisors play: lenders must notify homeowners in default that foreclosure prevention counseling is available and connect them with an approved agency.
“For more than three decades, Minnesotans have upheld the value that anyone navigating one of the most complicated financial transactions of their life should have someone to call,” said Young Kimball. “The Minnesota Homeownership Advisor network has helped more than 140,000 households buy and keep their homes. It takes a modest investment and delivers enormous returns in family stability.”
“The White House is again unlawfully taking funding away from Americans that was passed by a bipartisan vote in Congress and signed into law by President Trump,” Congresswoman McCollum said. “This time, the administration is using illegal budget manipulation to eliminate funding for housing counseling for first-time homebuyers and homeowners facing foreclosure. As the median age of first-time homebuyers in Minnesota has risen to 40 years old, the White House should not be cutting off this vital tool that helps Minnesota families achieve homeownership.”
“Too many Minnesotans are just one financial emergency away from potential foreclosure. That’s why we worked so hard to get this funding secured in the first place, so people can easily speak to someone who can help them responsibly buy a house or help them keep their home if they run into hard times,” said Sen. Tina Smith. “Housing counseling saved 40,000 Minnesotans from losing their homes to foreclosure and helped many accomplish their dream of buying their first home. The President’s decision to rescind funding for these counselors will only make things worse at a time when most people are already struggling to make ends meet.”
“Non-profit housing counseling agencies are on the front lines keeping families in their homes in the midst of financial crisis; they also help prepare first-time homebuyers to simply seek the American Dream. Our work preserves and builds wealth for communities across the state,” says, Judy Bond, HUD Certified Homeownership Coordinator with Anoka County Community Action Program.
The Minnesota Homeownership Center is evaluating all available options in response to the rescission, in coordination with the National Coalition of HUD Intermediaries, and will continue working with partners across Minnesota to protect access to housing counseling.
About the Minnesota Homeownership Center
For more than 30 years, the Minnesota Homeownership Center has focused on providing homebuyer education and building the capacity of nonprofits to advance homeownership, in collaboration with our 28-member Homeownership Advisors Network. Our mission is to build a more equitable homeownership ecosystem so every Minnesotan—especially those facing the greatest systemic barriers—can access and sustain homeownership.