A new resource known as The Online Counselor was developed by the Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service (TxLIHIS) and is now available for finding low-income affordable housing on the web. The Texas Housing Counselor can be found at http://www.texashousingcounselor.org

The Counselor is basically a simulation of an actual human housing counselor. It asks questions about the user's income, location, special needs, etc. and then suggests appropriate housing.

So, for example, if the user is an elderly woman who lives in Waco and makes $500 a month, the Counselor might suggest housing developments in Waco that offer special services for the elderly and are affordable for this specific user. The Counselor would then estimate the user's rent in those development and offer information about how to apply for the relevant programs. The Counselor automatically does the following:

• provides names, addresses, telephone numbers (and even maps!) of appropriate housing developments
• computes rents and eligibilities for all of the major housing programs in Texas
• computes the user's percent of Median Family Income (MFI) and the Fair Market Rent (FMR) in the user's city
• locates housing in nearby cities (e.g., all housing within a 35 mile radius of Austin)
• provides contact information for the Legal Aid office that serves the user's city
• helps users contact their elected representatives to fight for improved housing policies