BOISE - Idaho Housing and Finance Association today announced it has been awarded a $212,610 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its Comprehensive Housing Counseling program. Idaho Partners for Home Buyer Education, Inc. will administer the grant, which will be used for comprehensive counseling.

"We are pleased that we have been chosen as the recipient of a grant that will help homeowners throughout the state," said Gerald Hunter, president and executive director of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. "Housing counseling allows homeowners to find resources and assess their own personal strengths to meet housing challenges."

Comprehensive counseling includes free one-on-one counseling and classroom education, available at a charge of $10 per person, for Idaho residents. Some of the issues discussed in counseling include restructuring debt, household budgeting, credit repair and avoiding predatory lending. The Finally Home! homebuyer education program provides first-time homebuyers with the information and tools necessary to make sound decisions in the home-buying process, with emphasis on budgeting and maintaining good credit.

Free one-on-one counseling is offered statewide through Idaho Housing and Finance Association. Specific counseling includes: post-purchase, mortgage default, pre-purchase, reverse mortgage, rental delinquency, and homeless prevention. One-on-one counseling also is available through Neighborhood Housing Services, Boise.

"It has been proven without a doubt that this type of education and/or counseling not only makes better homeowners and neighbors, but their investment of time and monetary resources provides involved and informed community members as well," said Connie Hogland, HUD's Boise field office director

The grant, which is the result of a competitive process offered to all housing counseling agencies throughout the United States, is effective Oct. 1, 2006 through Sept. 30, 2007. The funds will be used to compensate the program's counseling and training partners for their services.

The Idaho Partners for Home Buyer Education, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) corporation, coordinates pre-purchase homebuyer education throughout the state of Idaho and contracts for the services of eight regional training partners who provide the hands-on classroom education.

Finally Home homebuyer education is offered through eight regional training partners in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls, Caldwell, Nampa, Boise, Lewiston, and Coeur d'Alene (Post Falls).

IHFA functions as an agent for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and performs a variety of tasks associated with financing, developing, and managing affordable housing.

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The Idaho Housing and Finance Association, a financial services and housing business organization, provides funding for affordable housing in communities where it is most needed and when economically feasible.