There was an interesting story over at the Washington Post on the total disaster than is the Hope for Homeowners program. It looks like everyone is pointing fingers at this point. The problem is that the program was destined to fail from the start. The compromises that had to be made rendered the program completely inept (as we have been noting all along here). Here are some excerpts from the article:
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steve Preston said the centerpiece of the federal government’s effort to help struggling homeowners has been a failure and he’s blaming Congress.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who helped steer the HUD program through Congress, said some of the federal bailout money should be used to revamp it. Frank acknowledged the initiative has its problems, but he blamed them on the Bush administration.
For all those reasons, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said he got an earful from agitated lenders, housing counselors and real estate agents at a seminar last month in Atlanta designed to educate housing professionals about the Hope for Homeowners program.
“What we thought would be a civil and cordial exchange with the several hundred people gathered turned into an almost rock-throwing episode,” Montgomery said.
He said Capitol Hill lawmakers were hampered by a philosophical divide within their ranks when they cobbled the program together and that led to a compromise that made little sense.