Why more homeowners aren't getting help

... all of the efforts to keep people in their homes run through the mortgage servicers, who are responsible for deciding which troubled borrowers will get more affordable mortgages.

The problem is that servicers are being overrun by the foreclosure crisis: They were set up to process payments, not do loan workouts on a massive scale. As such, they lack the financial incentive to help homeowners workout new loans.

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In fact, servicers have financial reasons for not helping homeowners who fall behind... Porter, who has testified before Congress on mortgage lending issues, said more than half of 1,700 foreclosures she has studied involved questionable servicer fees.