In our last post we discussed some of the positive arguments made in terms of the government programs that were created to respond to the housing crisis that has left more than a handful of Florida families in financial distress.

It is now time to turn to "the bad" side of the government's foreclosure response programs: the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).

The opposite side of success for the two programs is more often measured by looking at the numbers and comparing what was supposed to happen with what actually did. HAMP for example was planned to help 3 million to 4 million homeowners across the nation obtain permanent loan modifications. The 883,076 homeowners helped sounds good on its own, but that number was supposed to be more than triple that amount.

HARP was even less successful in terms of numbers. The plan for HARP was to help 4 million to 5 million homeowners refinance to take advantage of lower-interest rates. In reality, only 928, 570 people received the lowered interest rates. Of those helped, the homes were only slightly underwater. Many people who were suffering with mortgage principle much higher than their home was worth were not being considered.

Part of the problem - according to those making the arguments - is that of the vast amount of money set aside to help individual homeowners went unused. Much of the reserved Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) aid went to big banks and members of the auto industry. Only $46 billion of the $475 billion went towards fore-closure prevention efforts.

Some legislators representing the worst foreclosure districts have asked for more help. Their requests were answered with some recent changes to HARP, but one representative called the efforts "too little, too late." We will touch on what experts are saying for the future of the programs in our next and final posting of this series.

Source: USA Today, "What went wrong with foreclosure aid programs," Julie Schmit, Dec. 11, 2011