Credit Counseling Services

St Johns Housing Partnership Offers a number of services through its credit counseling office. Our clients are prospective home buyers and current home owners facing foreclosure.

Foreclosure Intervention

SJHP’s Foreclosure Intervention Loan Program has one of the state’s highest percentages of foreclosures averted. SJHP partners with St. Johns County Legal Aid on foreclosure. Says Megan Wall, managing attorney for Legal Aid, “Together we have substantially slowed down the homestead losses in our community.

The St. Johns Housing Partnership can assist you through helping you understand and implement the correct option for you including Reinstatement, Forbearance, a Partial Claim, a Loan Modification, a Short Sale or a Deed-in-Lieu.

Click here to download our informational pamphlet if you are about to be or have been served foreclosure papers.

Prospective Home Buyers

For prospective home buyers the following services are available:

• Credit Repair - Many people are unsure of what steps to take to repair bad credit and build good credit. Through the credit counseling services of the St. Johns Housing Partnership they learn what their FICO score is, how to manage and perhaps pay off any bad information in their credit file and how to begin to build a good solid payment history. This information helps them to attain a mortgage at a reasonable rate.
• Financial Literacy - financial literacy includes going into rural areas and teaching St. Johns County residents topics like; What Is A Loan?, What Is A Mortgage?, What Resources Are Available? This gives people the skills to make informed financial decisions and avoid predatory lending.
• Affordability Testing - client’s budgets are evaluated to ensure that a home mortgage will be tailored to their total financial picture.
• Monthly Homebuyer Education - Most down payment assistance programs require clients to attend a class covering many aspects of buying a home. The classes are part lecture, overheads, outside speakers, and question-prompted discussion.
• Application Assistance - the St. Johns Housing Partnership assists people in understanding and navigating through the programs available to them such as SHIP, HAP and HOP.
• Budgeting - a prospective home buyer is taught how to manage a budget and given forms to fill out that will help them understand where their weekly / monthly income goes. This ensures that the prospective home buyer can make an informed decision on the amount of mortgage they can afford.

Current Home Owners

For current home owners the following services are available:

• Foreclosure Mitigation
• Budgeting - a client is taught how to manage a budget and given forms to fill out that will help them understand where their weekly/ monthly income goes. This helps stabilize a family budget that can be stressed by items such as late fees, cell phone bills, overdraft fees, etc. In three to six months I can usually get clients to where they can breathe again.

The St. Johns Housing Partnership partnership works with St. Johns County Legal Aid to help with foreclosure intervention where necessary.

Funding for services provided by grants from:

www.hud.gov

NeighborWorks America

St. Johns County Legal Aid

Florida Housing Finance Corporation