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The COVID 19 pandemic has impacted our community like no other disaster in our history. Housing counseling agencies have dealt with major obstacles in helping consumers obtain and maintain housing through the economic shutdown and recovery. Even when working through the current impact of COVID19, agencies still must be prepared to serve survivors in need of assistance and be able to respond rapidly should other disasters strike.

How does my organization develop plans to prepare for a disaster and mitigate loss to the agencies valuable assets?  How will my agency deliver existing services, add disaster related resources and engage with the community after a disaster strike?  How do we build partnerships with other community stakeholders before, during and after a disaster?  These questions among many others will be answered in this training.  This disaster response training will help housing counseling agencies develop plans to mitigate loss and be a trusted community resource for previous clients and others impacted by disaster. This training provides a step – by – step guide for housing counselors to use as they create disaster response action plans that are responsive to their location and unique needs.

You Will Learn: 

•  Discuss the activities that a HUD approved housing counseling agency can deliver under a Housing Counseling Agency Disaster Program.
•  Identify potential barriers that occur post disaster and create processes to overcome them, thereby enabling low- / moderate-income consumers to develop an action plan that will result in having access to safe, stable and affordable permanent housing.
•  Describe how to deliver one-on-one counseling, group education, foreclosure prevention, and other customized services, in the event your agency has suffered negative disaster impact.
•  Create a system to access local, state or federal disaster funding.
•  Understand federal and state regulations, assistance programs and moratoriums that affect residents in your service area and processes to assist disaster survivors.
•  Explains the administrative cost and reporting considerations associated with running the program.
•       Understand the delivery model for CDBG-DR funds.
•  Review and explain all of HUD’s Housing Counseling Disaster Recovery toolkits.
•  Insurance claims processing and the connection between consumer insurance reimbursement and access to disaster funding.