Alabama Council on Human Relations, Inc.

                -Committed to equal opportunity, and providing services and advocacy to Alabama children and families in need since 1954

Housing Counseling

    ACHR is certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a Housing Counseling Agency.  Services are offered to home buyers, home owners and renters to assist in improving housing conditions and in learning to meet the responsibilities of home ownership or tenancy.  Our Housing Counselor provides individuals and families with information about safe, affordable housing and assists in resolving problems such as rental issues, fair housing, and home ownership.  Budget counseling and assistance with mortgage default and rent delinquency are available.

    The Housing Counselor provides individual counseling sessions by appointment at offices located at two ACHR facilities – one in Auburn and one in Opelika.  Initial counseling sessions typically last about 45 minutes to an hour, and most clients make two return visits lasting 30-45 minutes each. 

    Our staff has learned over the years that many of our clients have a number of issues contributing to their housing problems. They need affordable housing, but they also need to improve other areas such as literacy, level of education and training, budget and money management skills, social skills, health and nutrition, parenting, and child care. ACHR is able to offer housing counseling clients an extensive range of services to meet those needs. ACHR services in the Lee County area include Early Head Start, Head Start, and extended day childcare, as well as WIC, energy programs, literacy, GED, employability and parenting classes, and two low to moderate- income apartment complexes in Lee County. The Housing Counselor can help clients access these immediate and long term resources.

    The Housing Counselor works cooperatively with a wide range of outside sources of help in the community such as banking services, mortgage programs, the County Health Department, church groups, Habitat for Humanity and the Battered Women’s Shelter.

    ACHR is certified as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) in thirty-one Alabama counties. Working with a private-sector developer in 1994, ACHR developed the Oakridge Apartment Complex in Auburn through the HOME program of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. Residents of the forty units enjoy attractive, affordable housing. Two units are handicapped accessible.   For more information, call 821-0712.

    Since then, ACHR, in conjunction with private sector entities, has developed another eight complexes of about the same size in Opelika, Auburn, Marion, Camden, Clanton, Roanoke, Luverne, Lanett and Prattville totaling well over 400 units. Currently there is a new complex in the planning process for the Auburn area.

    The Federal Home Loan Bank in Atlanta awarded Auburn Bank and Alabama Council on Human Relations, Inc., the 1997 Partnership Excellence Award for Darden Oaks in Opelika. ACHR is committed to continuing and increasing the development of affordable housing across the state and regularly seeks additional development funds.

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