ision in the Dodd-Frank Act that emerged from the House-Senate conference committee last week provides $1 billion to unemployed homeowners. The plan is patterned after Pennsylvania's Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), a program introduced by Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., when he was a state legislator. Under the program, qualified homeowners will be able to borrow up to $50,000 to assist them with their mortgage payments, provided that they have a reasonable prospect of resuming mortgage payments within 24 months. HEMAP has provided $236 million to tens of thousands of unemployed workers to stave off the foreclosure process, Fattah says. ‘I'm encouraged that my colleagues supported the mortgage-relief provision in conference to ensure that families won't be faced with the double blow of being unemployed and homeless,’ Fattah said in a statement Friday. The House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week. SOURCE: [link=http://fattah.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=34§iontree=32,34&itemid=669]Office of Rep. Chaka Fattah
