Project Lifeline to Cover Nearly All Borrowers

A week ago six of the major mortgage servicers involved in the Hope Now alliance announced that they would be offering a pause in foreclosure proceedings to borrowers who appeared able to enter into loan modification agreements. Now the remaining 19 members of the alliance have agreed to adopt the same guidelines in a program nicknamed Project Lifeline.

The project offers homeowners who are three months or more in arrears in their mortgage payments 30 additional days to seek help in working out agreements with their lenders and/or servicers in order to avoid foreclosure and save their homes.

The expansion of the program was announced Tuesday and now will cover 90 percent of subprime borrowers and about 70 percent of the entire mortgage market.

Members of the alliance will begin the process by sending out letters to delinquent homeowners including those with prime, Alt A, and subprime first mortgages as well as second mortgage liens and home equity lines. The 30-day delay will only apply to homeowners who respond to efforts to contact them and begin negotiations to work out their loans.

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