Updated: No Hope for Homeowners - Foreclosure Prevention Program Falters

Stunning feedback from readers of this article...

"I have been trying to get countrywide to adhere to this new program with zero results. I have made call after call on the HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS program and keep getting the "run around" from them. They keep saying that they "have not heard about this program from upper management" so they cannot "process the paperwork on it yet"...meanwhile, each day that goes by, we wait and hope that we will not be thrown out on the streets. I know for a fact that they simply just don't want to write down the differences....they are the worst culprits in this mess, I know....I used to underwrite mortgage loans for them until the "laid me off", leaving us with no way to pay them the mortgage. I am since reemployed and have the capability to pay our mortgage after a 12 month mess. I firmly believe they will never use this program... they are too damn greedy." - Matt (10-27-08)

"I thought it was just me. I have been trying for weeks to get someone at Countrwide to talk to me about the program. All I get is we have our own program coming out in December, and your account has not been flagged so you will not be eligible. On top of that I have to cancel my short sale in order to find out what they would do for me in a loan modification. My story is Matt's story 20 years as an underwriter, Countrywide forced the lender I work for out of business, and I was unemployed for almost a year. Now I have a new job and want to modify my loan.....I just can't get Countrywide to talk to me. Why should I have to give up a short sale contract to talk to the loan modification department? Why didn't the government put some teeth into the new program and require that the lenders participate? After all they made all the money all those years on these loans and created this mess. God help us all because we are not going to get any compassion or leadership anywhere else." - Kitty (10-27-08)

"I spent hours on the phone today with Countrywide, called the Hope dept (which is the Home Retention department aka loss mitigation). Again I was told that they know nothing about the H4H program (Hope for Homeowners) I was actually told that I am lucky they have not foreclosed yet. When asking about a loan mod, I was told again that I would have to cancel the short sale process but today I was told that it is unlikely even with my income that they would consider me for a modification of any kind since the taxes on my home are due next month and that puts me over some threshold for what they can modify. So If I can come up with 25k I guess I can keep the house on a loan mod. Or I can continue the short sale process which has Countrywide loosing 78k based on the HUD my realtor submitted which is supported by the new appraised value of my home. Or do nothing and wait for the Sheriff to kick me out. I have no where to go, my wonderful realtor actually gave me the phone number for a shelter. I should take my 74 year old mother in law and my husband with congestive heart failure to a shelter. Countrywide should be working with me, I have the income to make the monthly payments. This is a travesty. God help us all." - Kitty (10-27-08)

No Hope for Homeowners -

Foreclosure Prevention Program Falters

As banks continue to line up for the taxpayer funded handouts designed to ease their withdrawals from years of dependence on high yields derived from ridiculously reckless lending practices, homeowners continue to seek avenues to prevent the looming possibility of foreclosure - typically cited as the root cause of the economic 'crisis' that currently grips world financial markets.

It's reassuring to know that our dedicated civil servants are willing to put in the long hours required, on nights and weekends, to make sure their banking buddies and colleagues don't have to suffer the same fate as many banking executives of late, having to retire with hundreds of millions of dollars that were fraudulently paid out as options and bonuses as reward for investing long and naked, and exposing their companies to tremendous risks.

By the way - none of those profits from the ‘boom' are being appropriated in order to reimburse those now failing companies, and none of that money is going to be recovered in order to soften the blow to taxpayers.

That money is considered to be lawful compensation for a job poorly done. What is on the table is just exactly how much more bonuses they should get before their companies are declared illiquid then subsequently sold off to the lone bidder for pennies on the dollar, and how much of the bailout money they will use to buy up competitors instead of lending it out as promised.

And for the lowly taxpayer on whose backs both the illicit corporate profits as well as the cost of the bailout are borne? What has this unprecedented dash to action by the bureaucrats, political appointees, and elected representatives of the people wrought in the way of sanctuary from the economic tempest that has engulfed their citizenry?

How about the dandy "Hope for Homeowners" program, designed to help more than 400,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure by making as much as $300 billion dollars available for the effort. What a fantastic idea, it would seem at first glance. Of course, the Devil really is in the details.

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