Training isn't just a way to keep certifications current; it's a way to keep knowledge current. And as current events continue to create moving targets for affordable housing and community development professionals – with eviction moratoriums, unemployment, rental relief, and a kaleidoscope of grants and programs – housing counselors, educators and trainers need to keep up. That's why NeighborWorks America, with significant funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation, is offering scholarships and a new virtual strategy to provide time-relevant training courses during the pandemic and beyond. The offerings were part of a community response plan that also includes a Rental Resilience Fund and a Critical Relief Fund. The training includes both faculty-led and self-guided courses. One million dollars was allocated to cover 16,000 scholarships over the grant-year period.
Joe Filipski says he shared knowledge and ideas from the online training courses with City Council representatives in Philadelphia, where New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), a NeighborWorks network organization, is based. "I've been taking classes for the last few months," says Filipski, associate director and compliance officer of housing for NKCDC. "I definitely learned some new things that I didn't know before. You glean something new every time you take a class. Things are constantly changing."
Filipski says that during his courses, he was able to hear what other agencies were doing. That was especially true during Rental Counseling and Eviction Prevention Amid the COVID-19 Crisis. When a council representative reached out to ask how to help strengthen New Kensington's programs, he was able to share new knowledge, he says. The representative expressed gratitude for the insights and confirmed the city council had already been taking steps to implement courses of action.
Council followed up with the CARES Act, phase 2, which can pay six months of rent if the individual can show a 30% reduction in income since March 2020. The maximum that can be paid is $750 month, which the landlord has to accept as payment in full, even if the rent is higher. The landlord also must agree not to begin the eviction process until 60 days after the last payment is made.
"They're also developing a special program to connect a tenant who might be evicted with a housing agency to see if housing agency can help them overcome their situation," Filipski says. "That's been in talks. That's one thing they're looking at and it came out of some things I gleaned from that course."
He says learning about forbearances has been especially important this summer, along with learning to help people in transition during the pandemic. A scams class he took with a scholarship, Protecting Credit & Avoiding Scams During the COVID-19 Financial Crisis, also brought about a new awareness that he was able to share with others in his office.
Classes have resulted in new nuggets to share with clients, too. "With clients, I share the importance of continuing to stay in contact with their landlord, and providing references for local legal services, making them aware of the timeframes. I'm trying to help them be prepared. I'm hoping most of them will be okay."
Naldine Philistin is a housing educator in foreclosure prevention at Community Development Corporation of Long Island, a NeighborWorks network organization in New York. With COVID, though, she's trying to get cross training in rental housing counseling as well, to give her more flexibility in helping with the expected increase in calls from clients.
"The classes help me stay to date with what's been happening," says Philistin, whose classes included Financial Management: Building Competency in Housing Counseling, Effectively Managing Money & Debt During the COVID-19 Financial Crisis, and more . "How COVID impacts loss mitigation options." Classes in debt management have been helpful and she's passed along tips to her clients.
She says the remote learning has been much easier than traveling. Most of the courses she's taken so far have been webinars, she says, so there hasn't been much interaction with her classmates.
"Mostly I'm learning about the current financial crisis to help with customers who have been impacted," she says. "If I meet a customer who has been impacted by COVID and I know what loan they have, I can properly assess that customer's needs and provide them with relevant information. The point is to bring the information I learned back to the customer."
She'll be taking more, she says.
Diane Jasso is primarily a foreclosure prevention counselor at Avenue, a builder of homes and communities in Houston, Texas, and a NeighborWorks network organization. Under normal circumstances, she gets five to 10 calls a week from residents worried about foreclosure, along with her regular appointments. The past few weeks have been quiet, she says, because so many people have received forbearances. But with the forbearances ending, she's expecting an uptick.
"Right now, people are looking for financial assistance rather than help working with their mortgage company," she says. "They're trying to bring the loan current while they are in the forbearance, which is a good sign that they'll pay what they owe and won't need to apply for other home retention options."
Jasso took courses related to COVID-19 on eviction prevention, foreclosure mitigation, and keeping up with the CARES Act. She took another on student loans, Student Loan CARES Act Relief in Response to COVID-19. "The instructor was really good. She helped me understand what was in the bill, what was protected and what wasn't," she says.
She was grateful for the opportunity to learn online during orders to stay at home. "The scholarship was really helpful, to be able to get in there and register and not have to worry about the cost," she says. "The class provided a lot of information. I saved my class notes."
She says the courses refreshed her energy. She'd been apprehensive about the way the classes would go online, she says, but for the most part, it went smoothly. "It made it easy to get some hours I needed and to get some updated information about what's happening right now."
She learns not just from the classes but from the questions other counselors ask, she says. "I've taken almost all of them that I've had the chance to."
08/21/2020
