Your Path to Home Starts Here.
Connect with a housing counselor at a non-profit Housing Counseling Agency who can help you make an action plan to achieve your housing goal. Whether you are looking for assistance with purchasing your first home, renting a home, improving your financial health, or reducing the risk of losing your home to foreclosure or eviction, a HUD-Certified housing counselor can help.
How We Can Help.
Advice from a housing counselor can help you develop a household spending plan, improve your credit score, or qualify for special mortgage products and down payment assistance, depending on where you are in your housing journey.
What You Get
Access to a skilled, HUD-certified housing counselor to guide your journey.
Whether you are seeking to rent or purchase a home, housing counseling can help save you money and avoid pitfalls.
A housing counselor can develop a plan for you to improve your credit worthiness and obtain the best mortgage or rental option for you.
Services Available To You
First-Time Homebuyer Education
What can I expect during the journey to owning a home?
What kind of credit and income will I need?
Financial Literacy
What is my credit report and how can I improve my score?
What hurts my credit score and how long does it stay on my report?
Rental Counseling
How can I get find the best rental?
What are my risks when renting and how can I protect myself?
Other Services
Housing Counselors can also help with applying for homelessness prevention assistance, home maintenance, a reverse mortgage, and mortgage delinquency or default.
An Initiative of
Housing Action Illinois is a statewide coalition that has been leading the movement to protect and expand the availability of quality, affordable housing in Illinois for 35 years. Our 160+ member organizations include housing counseling agencies, homeless service providers, developers of affordable housing, and policymakers. We bring everyone together to work toward our vision of an Illinois where everyone has a stable, good home.
Freddie Mac was chartered by Congress in 1970 to support the U.S. housing finance system and to help ensure a reliable and affordable supply of mortgage funds across the country. Rather than lending directly to borrowers, Freddie Mac operates in the U.S. secondary mortgage market, buying loans that meet our standards from approved lenders. Those lenders are then, in turn, able to provide more loans to qualified borrowers and keep capital flowing into the housing market.