The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced it is making $ 40 million in grants available to support hundreds of housing counseling organizations across the country that assist families, including those buying their first home, struggling to locate affordable rental housing or seeking to avoid foreclosure. It is estimated HUD’s housing counseling grants, and the additional funding they leverage, will reach more than 1.5 million households through a network of approximately 300 national, regional and local organizations.