The federal government, for a large part, has stood by while millions of Americans fell into hard times with their mortgages. While a bailout was quickly arranged for one of the top financiers of the credit fiasco, the homeowners have been blamed by the administration for causing their own problems. The homeowners that I speak to on a daily basis, by and large, are upstanding, hardworking individuals who are just doing their best to get by, in the face of rapidly increasing expenses.

The government last year, in their one consumer-oriented initiative, launched a voluntary, industry-comprised group of top lenders and services under the banner of Hope Now. Through today, the initiative has been widely proclaimed a flop, as the top banks could not agree on any meaningful steps.

That may change a bit tomorrow as a new set of servicing guidelines will be released by Hope Now

Here are the main ideas of the new agreement:

• uniformity among lenders
• specific timetables
• promise to stay in contact
• automatic subordination of second liens to allow loan modifications
• expansion of forbearance, repayment plans and loan modifications
• includes short sales in the agreement goals

In no way is this agreement legally binding. The organizers suggest that all Hope Now participants implement the new standards within 60 days.

The challenge here is that the current administration does not tell the truth. They claim that Hope Now has resulted in 1.6 million loan workouts since July 2007, even though policy makers and legislators, and even the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks, suggested a lower figure of 167,000 loan workouts.

While the government drags it’s feet, foreclosures continue to run rampant. For May, one is 438 households received a foreclosure filing.