Obama Gets Serious About Foreclosure Help

Amid rising foreclosures and public outrage over taxpayer-funded handouts to banks, the Obama administration is trying to put some teeth into its program to help ailing homeowners.

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), announced in February, dangled financial incentives to banks and mortgage servicers willing to lower mortgage payments for borrowers facing foreclosure. At the time, the administration said it hoped HAMP would modify mortgages for 3-4 million homeowners over a period of three years. To date, almost 651,000 homeowners have had their mortgages lowered on a trial basis, through the program, according to government data.