LITTLE ROCK—President Bush on Tuesday will talk with clients who have sought help from a nonprofit agency that offers housing counseling as he visits Arkansas—a state that has seen an uptick in foreclosures but hasn’t been hit as hard by the mortgage crisis as other states.

Bush will make his first visit to Arkansas since October to convene the housing roundtable discussion and help raise cash for the state Republican Party. Bush won the state in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

The first stop on Bush’s schedule is a roundtable discussion with clients of a housing counseling program offered by the Family Service Agency in North Little Rock. Henry Cameron, a housing credit counselor, said the number of clients it helps who have defaulted on their home loans has nearly doubled —from an average of five a month a year ago to 12 a month this year.

Cameron blamed increases in fuel and food prices primarily for putting a squeeze on the budgets of his clients.

Bush visits Arkansas as Republicans hope to keep the state in their column in the November presidential election, despite a string of losses at the state level. Bush will headline a fundraiser at the Little Rock home of George O’Connor for the Republican Party of Arkansas. Tickets for the reception are $150, while a photo-op package is being offered for $5,000. During his visit, the president will also present a volunteer service award to Robbie Powell, 12, a student at Bob Courtway Middle School in Conway.