Prestamos Refinanciar Hipotecas Estados Unidos

"We are looking very closely at a wide range of tools to help people who are unemployed," Michael Barr, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions, told reporters after a speech before the Consumer Federation of America Thursday.

"There are a number of models that can be used to do that. I just think we need to look at a process, if we come to this point, that is fair to everyone, that is cost effective, that protects the taxpayers, and that gives people, responsible homeowners, a chance to stay in their home," Barr said.

Barr didn't say whether additional funds from Treasury's Wall Street rescue package would be used for mortgage assistance for the unemployed. Already, $75 billion of the $700 billion rescue fund has been devoted to helping strapped borrowers get loan modifications.

Taking questions from the audience of consumer advocates, Barr said Treasury is looking at a variety of ways to help people who "have borrowed more than their home is now worth."

Some of these individuals will continue to live in their homes, stay employed and pay their mortgages, Barr said.

"But there is a category of people for whom there is going to be an event in their life that's going to make it hard for them to stay in that home. And I do think we need to have better answers for people who are in that latter circumstance."

Some of the options for helping such people include principal forbearance or principal forgiveness, Barr said. "Others may need more serious adjustment in their principal, and I do think that's an area worth looking at more carefully," he said.

The administration is under pressure to help the unemployed make mortgage payments as joblessness has eclipsed exploding subprime mortgages as a major driver of foreclosures. Lawmakers are pushing the administration to use Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to offer the unemployed stopgap loans to cover their mortgage payments until they find work.

The Congressional Black Caucus, which is prodding the administration to do more to help ease unemployment among their constituents, backs this idea. It also wants the administration to force lenders to take certain steps, including writing down principal, before they can begin foreclosure proceedings.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), a caucus member, criticized the administration's foreclosure-prevention effort, saying attempts to jawbone lenders into making loan modifications won't work.

"They need more advice and input from sources other than inside that White House," she said in an interview.

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) have introduced legislation that would devote $2 billion in TARP funds to bridge loans of up to two years for people who are unable to make their mortgage payments because they've lost their jobs. The legislation would mimic on the federal level a Pennsylvania program that has been in place since 1984.

Under the program, qualified homeowners who have lost their jobs apply to a state agency for loans to cover their mortgage payments for up to two years. They repay the loan once they find work again. The program has provided loans to more than 43,000 people since 1984 at a cost of $236 million, according to Philadelphia Unemployment Project Director John Dodds.