About That Hope For Homeowners

There wasn't so much hope or change for homeowners due to the President's vaunted homeowner bailout program, Hope For Homeowners. No one was interested.

Actually, technically that's not true.

One person was. Only one person in the entire nation was helped by this program, which goes to show just how out of touch the Administration was on dealing with the housing crisis, which was due in large part to the government manipulating the housing market in the quest for affordable housing - and putting millions of people into homes that they had no business being in because they couldn't afford to repay their obligations.

The bill had initially been stalled by a provision that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify the mortgages of troubled homeowners. The Senate stripped that language after the financial services industry complained it would raise costs and increase their losses.

Instead, Congress passed legislation allowing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make significant changes to a failed government program to allow delinquent borrowers to refinance into new loans. The Hope for Homeowners program has helped just one borrower since it was launched in October. The legislation would ease eligibility requirements and lower the cost for both borrowers and lenders.

The legislation includes new protections for renters potentially displaced when their landlords fall into foreclosure. Renters' leases would be honored or, if they are on a month-to-month lease, they would get at least 90 days notice. The Justice Department also gains expanded authority to prosecute mortgage fraud, including fraud by mortgage brokers and others not directly regulated by federal officials.

I don't expect the revamped program to do much better, although a nationwide program with just one person benefiting sounds like one that should be axed, not revamped.