March 15, 2011 (Jeff Alan)

Although the Republicans efforts to end the Obama Administrations anti-foreclosure programs will probably never see fruitation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has sounded off on the Republicans efforts to end the programs as “irresponsible.”

“The Obama administration is committed to helping struggling homeowners stay in their homes and taking the steps needed to stabilize the housing market, and ending this program would mean the loss of an important lifeline for those families and risk damaging the fragile recovery we’re finally starting to see in the housing market,” a HUD spokesperson said. “It would be irresponsible and should be opposed.”

So far the House has passed two bills terminating the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Short-Refi program, which refinances underwater borrowers out of negative equity, and HUD’s Emergency Homeowner Loan Program (EHLP), which provides interest free loans to the unemployed borrowers for help on their mortgage payments.

Two more bills will reach the floor this week, which would end the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

“The Emergency Homeowners Loan Program will provide relief to tens of thousands of families who are still struggling to make ends meet after the deepest economic recession and housing crisis in a generation,” the HUD spokesperson said Friday after the bill passed.

None of the bills are expected to be taken up by the Democrat controlled Senate and President Obama has already said that any such bill that reached his desk would be vetoed.

However, Republicans are determined to push for an end to these programs because they say that the programs have shown overwhelming poor results, are a waste of taxpayers money, and that the U.S. can no longer afford them.

“The money from this program doesn’t go to the homeowner, it goes to the lender, it goes to the banks. And who pays for it? The taxpayers and ultimately our children and grandchildren because the federal government borrows 42 cents of every dollar it spends,” Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said of the FHA Short Refi program.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said this sort of spending will “drive this country off a cliff.”

Tags: HUD, Republicans, irresponsible, anti-foreclosing programs, housing market, struggling homeowners, FHA, HAMP, EHLP, Short-Refi, NSP