But the tool is no longer available, with the underlying contract that funds it having ended on Feb. 11. An announcement to NRMLA members said that HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling issued a notice informing them of the contract’s cancellation, but counselors who spoke with HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) could not locate an official announcement.
One counselor described not learning about the cancellation until attempting to use the tool. Attempting to visit the online portal returns an error message: “We regret to inform you that this website is no longer available due to loss of government funding,” the notice reads. “Sorry for the inconvenience. Please contact HUD for more information.”
RMD reached out to Ibis Software Corp., the contracted vendor that built and hosted the tool, but did not receive a response.
NRMLA’s membership notice and reporting by GovWin attributed the contract cancellation to the U.S. DOGE Service, the government cost-cutting effort inside the White House led by billionaire Elon Musk.
NRMLA advises HECM counselors to use budget creation tools they may deploy for other types of counseling in their HECM business. The trade group also advises counselors to direct their clients to state and local resources, if necessary.
When reached, some counselors suggested that the impact on their operations would not be severe. When HUD previously canceled a different tool used in HECM counseling — the Financial Interview Tool (FIT) — Cambridge Credit Counseling Corp. secured its own budget to develop an in-house tool. And once CBRIT was released, Cambridge continued using its own budget tool, said Jennifer Cosentini, the organization’s housing director.
While the resource-identifying functions were useful, Cosentini said that it was generally more efficient for the organization to continue using its own budgeting tools because of limited time with clients. There were also free tools for counselors to use that they already favored, she said.
Jackie Boies, senior director of counseling and support at Money Management International (MMI), said that her organization did not expect the CBRIT development.
“Considering that technology changes and the HUD Housing Counseling handbook isn’t often updated, the team at [MMI] was surprised to see the Client Budget and Resource Identity Tool (CBRIT) called out, specifically in the revised handbook,” Boies told RMD.
MMI uses its own client management software that has crossover with the functions of CBRIT, she said.
“MMI, like many other agencies, uses a robust client management software that provides for all the content contained in the CBRIT,” Boies said. “The HECM Loan Comparison and Underwriting Tool (HLCUT) remains in use to create loan comparisons and cost printouts.
“The HLCUT, coupled with our own CMS, ensures there has been no loss of information collected during counseling or shared with reverse mortgage borrowers who seek counseling with our agency.”
RMD reached out to HUD for comment on the cancellation but did not receive an immediate reply. When previously asked about other matters related to the program, a HUD spokesperson said that “the HECM program is a mission critical function and it will continue.”
