EmPOWERment housing counselor dropped due to lack of funding

The recent end of government funding for Chapel Hill-based EmPOWERment, a housing counseling and community empowerment organization, prompted the departure of their primary housing counselor, Amanda Stancil.

EmPOWERment and other housing nonprofits have collaborated on projects and workshops for years, and the loss of Stancil puts more work on the shoulders of those at other organizations. This, in turn, affects the access of county residents to pre- and post-purchase services. 

EmPOWERment's executive director, Delores Bailey, said Stancil's departure comes down to a lack of funding. 

Prior to the 2010 budget change, which slashed funding to multiple housing organizations statewide, the North Carolina Community Development Initiative was responsible for granting nonprofits, like EmPOWERment, the money they needed for their programs. 

"As a nonprofit, the Initiative was supplying us with grants for operation," Bailey said. "2010 was when the Initiative's funding got cut, so they cut EmPOWERment. That operating fund that we were getting from the Initiative helped support our housing counseling position, because that's not an income-generating program."

EmPOWERment is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-approved nonprofit that focuses on housing counseling and community empowerment, working with clients in a pre-purchase capacity and through foreclosure prevention programs. 

With a lack of money from the Initiative came the need to find an alternate source of cash for hiring a housing counselor: this presented itself in a channeling of funds from the Attorney General following the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, which gave North Carolina $441 million to assist struggling homeowners. 

This money funded Stancil's salary for three years, but the lack of a long-term source of operating money from the legislature rendered her work with EmPOWERment decidedly temporary. 

The effect of Stancil's vacancy reaches other Orange County housing organizations. 

"The vacancy is just one of several vacancies that have taken place in the county," said Sharron Reid, the family services director for Habitat for Humanity's Orange County chapter. "The workload continues to be whatever the families need. We feel that we will probably have to serve more families as a result of (the vacancy)." 

Another organization hard-hit by the lack of state funding is the Centre for Home Ownership, based in Hillsborough. The Centre's principal operation is the NC Foreclosure Prevention Program, which offers unemployed individuals the opportunity to receive either $36,000 toward their mortgage or three years of payments.http://homeownershipcentre-ed.org

James Stroud, president and CEO of the Centre, said the General Assembly has taken a lot of money from housing counseling in recent years.

"As early as last year, they took away a large amount of money from us," Stroud said. "It's very competitive now, because you're going up against so many other programs that the state wants to do. The current administration doesn't seem to think that (housing) is a priority."

Stancil and Reid are two of three housing counselors in the entirety of Orange County. With such a scarcity, the workload is significant. 

This problem worsens when considering that Stancil's work largely revolved around foreclosure counseling — a post-purchase service that seeks to help people hold onto their homes in spite of significant financial troubles. 

"It's a huge void not having a housing counselor on-staff," Bailey said. "Amanda was specialized in foreclosure management. It's heartbreaking to me because that's part of our mission — we spent years trying to get people to come to us for foreclosure, and yet now we don't have dollars to hire a counselor." 

EmPOWERment will be holding a fundraiser on Saturday, November 14 at the Carrboro Hampton Inn at 7:00 p.m. 

city@dailytarheel.com