On February 12, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson gave prepared remarks at the announcement of Project Lifeline. In his remarks, he touched on Project Lifeline, HOPE NOW and the FHA Secure program.
A portion of his remarks:
"And let's be clear and honest. One action alone will not solve every problem in the housing market. Rather, a series of incremental steps provide the best chance, maybe the only chance, for serious, on-point solutions that directly address the complex problem we face.
Several recent efforts have been extremely helpful, including the President's actions with FHA Secure. Since September, when President Bush announced FHA Secure, the department has received applications to refinance more than 228,000 conventional loans into safe, affordable FHA products. More than 5,000 of these families were already in default and facing foreclosure on their subprime loans. Fourteen hundred lenders have used FHA Secure to help struggling homeowners. With the passage of the President's Economic Stimulus Package, they can help thousands more families because of the increase in FHA loan limits in high cost areas. And if Congress approves bipartisan legislation to modernize the FHA, we could help 250,000 more families. Finally, just last week HUD started sending out letters to more than 850,000 targeted homeowners, urging them to consider refinancing high cost subprime loans with FHA."
