Home Defense Program HUD Certified Housing Counselor/Paralegal

Atlanta Legal Aid Society (Legal Aid), a non-profit law firm representing low-income persons in civil legal matters including family, housing, consumer, public benefits, education, and health law, seeks a HUD-Certified Housing Counselor/Paralegal for its Home Defense Program. This in-office position is based in Legal Aid's Decatur office.

About the Role

The Home Defense Program assists individuals and families to prevent the loss of their home through foreclosure, predatory mortgage lending, or home sale scams.

Responsibilities

• Case intake and management, including answering the phone, conducting initial client intakes and interviews, gathering documentation, and presenting cases to staff attorneys and at case acceptance meetings.
• Housing counseling, financial analysis, budgeting, and action planning for low- and moderate-income homeowner and homebuyer clients whose cases are taken for representation.
• Assist attorneys with document preparation and execution, discovery, depositions and hearings, and other paralegal and clerical work.
• Provide clients with information and advice under the strict supervision of an attorney.
• Review and analyze applications for appropriate loss mitigation and foreclosure prevention options, such as deferrals, forbearances, partial claims, loan modifications, and/or mortgage assistance programs.
• Data management, including entering information into Legal Aid's database and retrieving relevant data.
• File management, including scanning documents into the client database, digital organization, filing, and archiving closed cases.
• Ensure grant compliance, organize data and documentation required for grants, and assist in the preparation of periodic reports.
• Conduct deed and lien searches.
• Maintain a community outreach schedule and community education materials.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Requirements

• Must be a HUD-Certified Housing Counselor.
• An undergraduate degree or paralegal certificate is preferred, but not required.
• Prior housing counselor experience, paralegal or legal assistant experience strongly preferred.
• Prior experience with law office management software strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated commitment to public service and previous work with low-income people, with an appreciation for diversity, is strongly preferred.
• Must be patient, compassionate, and possess excellent problem-solving skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication, listening, and organizational skills.
• Must be industrious, dependable, organized, adaptable, detail-oriented, with the ability to complete tasks within the applicable deadline.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace and a willingness to learn new legal and medical data tools.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and in a collaborative, hybrid team model.
• Proficiency in languages other than English, specifically Spanish, is highly valued.

Pay

This position offers a salary of $56,500, which may vary (up or down) depending on work experience. Salaries are reviewed annually and may be adjusted based on available funding.

Benefits

• Generous fringe benefits, including 16 paid holidays in 2026 and 6 weeks of paid time off (accruing at 2.5 days per month).
• 6 weeks of parental leave (12 weeks after one year).
• Individual health insurance, including optional dental and vision coverage, with partial payment for dependent health insurance.
• Life, long-term, and short-term disability insurance.
• Salary reduction option for a flexible spending account.
• Educational loan reimbursement up to $600 per month (after a set off of other loan reimbursement amounts).
• Voluntary tax-sheltered annuity with a 3% match.
• This position may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through the U.S. Department of Education.