A range of housing counseling programs didn't survive the cuts Congress and the White House agreed to to keep the federal government open through the end of its current fiscal year, the Tribune's Mary Ellen Podmolik reports today. Everything from pre-purchase help to programs for seniors are taking a hit, and foreclosure prevention efforts are at risk, Podmolik writes. In all, the budget deal lopped off $88 million for housing programs. This is bad news for the community-based organizations on the front lines, grappling with the fall-out of the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession.

In Chicago, the Northwest House Center will lose 20 percent of its budget, a total of $45,000. Lakeside Community Development Corp. is set to lose $35,000. "You're cutting out muscle and bone instead of fat," Lakeside's executive director Brian White said. Neighborhood Housing Services, one of the larger groups active in Chicago, will lose $75,000 out of its $10 million annual budget. Part of the concern is that private donations won't be able to make up the cuts to these, and other, housing groups.

A representative from the National Council of La Raza called the reductions "a huge hole in the budget of the counseling infrastructure."

UPDATE: Last week, Curtis Black wrote about the counseling cuts over at Newstips. Black reported that the Rogers Park Community Development Corporation would have to cut staff because of the federal reductions. And Bob Palmer, executive director of Housing Action Illinois, said the cuts were "completely misguided in the face of the foreclosure crisis. It looks like partisan politics has trumped making good funding decisions.”