Summary
HPN commends the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) proposed new HAWK pilot program. The
HAWK pilot represents a significant step forward by HUD and FHA in embracing the importance high-quality homebuyer education and counseling as a critical bridge to sustainable homeownership for new
and underserved potential homeowners. A well-designed and implemented program could have a
tremendous impact on the residential mortgage industry by demonstrating the value proposition for
homebuyer education and counseling as a credit enhancer for first-time homebuyers, and creating a
strong precedent for other commercial mortgage products to embed access to counseling, consumer
advice, and homebuyer education throughout the life of the loan. The HAWK pilot could also contribute
to driving an ongoing transformation in the counseling industry toward scaled, professional, and high
capacity organizations that provide a broad range of services to current and prospective homebuyers,
paid for by all beneficiaries of those services. We coined the phrase “homeownership stewards” to
describe the role of nonprofit social enterprises with the mission-based commitment to their customers
and financially sustainable models that will allow these organizations to serve as trusted advisors to
consumers across the entire homeownership experience – available to give advice and support from
pre-purchase to closing to refinancing and sale, there to support consumers should they encounter
difficulties paying the mortgage.