Housing Counseling System (HCS)

Related Information Agencies that require help should contact their HUD Homeownership Center (HOC) to obtain an ID and Password for login and assistance. LOGIN Housing Counseling System View Agencies on HUD'S Web List HUD Resources USER MANUAL To explore HCS capabilities and to address questions about system functionality available for different types of users, please refer to the latest HCS User Manual. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE To report technical issue or system error, please contact HUD Help Desk and open a service ticket.

Housing Counseling System (HCS) is a real-time web application that manages the counseling program data. It maintains the list of agencies, collects counselor and client data, and provides performance reports.

It is recommended that you don't bookmark the HCS log-in page but that you do bookmark this page in order to access HCS.

• Agencies are responsible for ensuring their data is complete and accurate.
• Agencies are required to validate their data at least once every 90 days.
• HUD Field Office personnel are responsible for ensuring that their assigned agencies comply.

Agency information from HCS is used to produce the listings of HUD-approved Housing Counseling Agencies by state on the web and via the toll-free phone number. If the information on the web listing or on the toll-free number is not correct, the agency makes corrections in HCS and the updated information will be posted the next day.

Agency credit for HECM Counseling and Languages Spoken will be derived from the Counselor data assigned to each agency. These boxes in the agency's profile will no longer be marked manually.

HCS is capable of collecting agency data in XML format directly from the agencies’ internal systems. As of fiscal year 2008 agencies are expected to utilize a Client Management System (CMS) of their choice to automate counseling services and store client data, and interface with HCS Agency Reporting Module to submit required data to HUD. Please visit the CMS Requirement Guidance for more information and for a list of compatible CMS products.

System Requirements

HUD recommends using Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7 to access HCS. Minor loss of functionality may occur while HCS is accessed via different browsers and operation systems.

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