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One of the major efforts by the current administration to help the economy during times of crisis has been the Make Homes Affordable program. This government program is designed to get borrowers who are facing foreclosure on their home to the point where they can afford their home loan and where they can begin to pay  it back and not face the looming specter of foreclosure. The program has met with some success, although a quarter of people in the program today have found themselves again behind on their home loans.

Chicago’s Struggle

In some areas, people are struggling to qualify for the program. Take Chicago, for example. In that city around 36,000 homeowners have had temporary or permanent home loan modifications. This makes Chicago one of the leading areas in the nation for the plan. This is good, as around 9.5 percent of mortgages in Chicago were more than 90 days delinquent during the month of October. Foreclosure filings in November were 108 percent more than what they were the previous year.

Yet, home owners struggle to get assistance through the program. The borrowers complain that the process is confusing at best. They complain that home loan servicers are losing track of paperwork. On the home loan servicer side, these companies are claiming that the homeowners aren’t giving them the necessary documentation to get them fully into the program.

A Nation’s Struggle

About 728,000 home loan modifications were in place by the end of last month. The vast majority are in a trial phase, during which the homeowner is to gather the appropriate documentation to make the modification permanent. Less than 32,000 home loans nationwide have been made permanent.

The program was projected, initially, to help as many as four million home loan borrowers. The process is much slower than anticipated, however. In addition, of the 78 home loan servicers, there is little consistency in terms of success rates. Bank of America, for example, is the nation’s largest home loan servicer and has only made 98 permanent modifications to date.

How to Fix It

There’s no easy way to fix the problem, it would seem. A homeowner can only do so much to provide the home loan servicer with the required documentation, and they can’t force the servicer to take the necessary steps to complete the process. Ultimately, it’s a matter of having all of your ducks in a row and then following up with the servicer until the process is complete.