What is the Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program?

The Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance program is a mortgage relief bill that is currently being reviewed in the U.S. House of Representatives committee on Financial Services. Since this bill is in the early stages of the procedure to become a law, it still has to overcome several major hurdles before (and if ever) it becomes a law. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to take an in-depth look at this proposed program to understand precisely what type of actions lawmakers are working on to address the recent economic turmoil.

Patterned closely after an existing law of the same name in Pennsylvania, the bill’s overriding intent is to provide mortgage payment relief to people who have experienced financial hardship. The act, if written into law, would enable the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide mortgage assistance to financially distressed homeowners, while prohibiting a mortgage lender from commencing any legal action against the homeowner while they are receiving assistance under the act.

The official name of the bill, H.R.3142 – Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Act, was introduced and sponsored by Representative Chaka Fattah (D) of Pennsylvania, and was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services on July 9th, 2009. At the time of this writing, no official action has been taken on the bill since that date.