Abstract
This study is based on a survey of welfare counselling services provision, including best practice, current issues and suggestions for ways to improve housing welfare. For this study, 20 facilities providing housing welfare consulting and 26 people actually doing the consulting at those facilities were surveyed. The high-level findings of this study include: 1. Lower level local governments should be the frontline in providing housing welfare consulting services as they have the capability to provide greater accessibility to such services for those in need and deliver sustainable housing welfare benefits responsibly; 2. Housing welfare consulting has a wide scope and requires a high level of expertise. For this reason, the Counseling Service Providers have a great need for field training and capacity building. In this regard, certified housing welfare professionals may offer a viable solution. 3. In terms of best practice, the qualities required for Consulting Service Providers include professional knowledge, communication skills, understanding of those seeking Consulting, and the capability to check the progress in consulting and follow up.