Nearly $22 billion remains available to help struggling home owners reduce their monthly mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure through the government’s Making Home Affordable program, according to a quarterly report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. An additional $3.4 billion is still available for the Hardest Hit Funds Program as well. 
TARP has only spent $12.8 billion to date of the $45.6 billion in funds it’s been allocated for housing programs.
The “Treasury should improve coordination between these programs so that they work together as seamlessly as possible to provide effective, sustainable mortgage relief to as many struggling home owners as possible,” the report states.
HAMP has suffered from low participation. Only 1 in 6 home owners who have applied for HAMP have received a permanent loan modification, according to the report. The program has had a high redefaulting rate. To date, 389,222 home owners who have participated in HAMP have not been able to keep up with their new modified mortgage payments. Twenty-nine percent of home owners who qualified for HAMP have had to drop out of the program.
What’s more, many home owners are soon set for an increase in their rate. After five years, the rate on HAMP loans rises 1 percent until reaching its previous rate prior to the loan modification.
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Source: Housing Wire 06/30/2014
