Obama Foreclosure Relief Plan to Get Smaller

Federally funded foreclosure relief will likely be less available to distressed homeowners as the Obama administration reduces the number of homeowners entitled to such aid, according to a story published today by Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post. Facing pressure from major mortgage lenders and seven Republican state attorneys, the administration has reduced the number of homeowners it plans to help from around three million to one million, says the report, with lower average payments for each homeowner.

The program originally was established to help homeowners who had been severely impacted by unscrupulous mortgage lender practices. Some federal regulators have argued that wrongdoing by lenders was not nearly as widespread as first reported, though many consumer advocates and state officials dispute that.

There also has been something of a public backlash against giving aid to borrowers who purchased homes they could not afford and then fell into foreclosure due to no fault of their lenders.