Mortgage Aide Program Gets Mixed Results
If you're struggling to make your mortgage payments, a government program could help. But it requires cooperation from banks and mortgage companies.
When Carl Crawford fell behind on his payments he almost lost it all.
A housing counselor told Crawford about the government's "Making Homes Affordable Program" or HAMP.
It's designed to help homeowners by lowering their monthly mortgage payments.
"Every time we got documents together and sent it to the mortgage company they sent something back saying they needed something that we already sent or they asked for something they could have asked for before," Crawford said.
"Maybe 3-4 weeks later they'd call back and say they need something else. By then I was getting very frustrated."
Crawford's story is not unique.
About 41 miles away, in Bucks County Don Suesz was also trying to untangle the red tape before the sheriff came knocking.
"Knowing that a man with a gun is going to show up with an auctioneer and sell your house to strangers, that's pretty hard."
Suesz thought the HAMP could help him too
"This is the most recent thing I had to replace paperwork that they lost."
But after 12 months of bureaucratic back and forth with the ban, his loan is still not modified.
"I've been following everything they asked me to do."
"You make the trial payment they essentially tell you to ignore the normal bill that you're getting and at the same time they're reporting you to the credit bureaus that you're still behind on your mortgage so your credit suffers even more."
The problem is so bad, for every three homeowners this program helps, two drop out because it's just too frustrating.
Attorney Stephen Dunne took on Carl Crawford's case pro bono.
"The banks make a calculated strategy to make HAMP a nightmare experience, forcing people to give up.," he says.
"They need to sanction banks for egregious behavior of losing people's documents like Crawfords, 5 months in a row, that's calculated, that's methodical."
With Dunne's help, Crawford was finally able to modify his loan and save his home.
"I just consider myself blessed and lucky that I had people working with me to help me along with the process."
But up in Bucks County, Don Suesz is alone and there's still a sheriff sale date looming.
"There's so many things to stop that money from getting down to us, I mean, the entire basis of the program is "lets give it to the mortgage companies." hello! - let's give it to the people!"
More than 3 million federal modification arrangements have gone thru since last April, far outnumbering the amount of foreclosures.
The Treasury Department is working to streamline the paperwork process. Homeowners with questions can call 888-995-hope.