Frank: Lend jobless a hand

By JAY FITZGERALD

Rep. Barney Frank is twisting the arms of U.S. Treasury officials to get them to use some of the federal government's massive bailout fund to help unemployed homeowners pay their mortgages.

Frank, the influential chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said yesterday he's been in contact with the Treasury about establishing a loan program for jobless Americans struggling to pay monthly mortgage bills.

"These are responsible people," the Newton Democrat said of jobless workers facing foreclosures.

The people he wants to help weren't involved in subprime mortgages and only need loans to pay mortgage bills until they find a job, said Frank, who is backing a bill to create such a loan program.

But he said he's also telling Treasury officials that if they move to renew the Troubled Asset Relief Program at the end of this year, then they won't get his help if the loan program isn't included.

He said the treasury may go along with a $2 billion loan program. A spokesman for the U.S. Treasury didn't return a phone call to confirm the department's intentions.

On Sunday, Frank told a meeting of homeowners and activists in hard-hit Brockton that he intended to pressure the Treasury to pony up loan funds for homeowners.

"It's crucial," said Lewis Finfer, director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network. "The size of the foreclosure problem is huge and could get bigger as it spreads to (prime) mortgages held by the unemployed."

Originally published by By JAY FITZGERALD.

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