Inquirer Editorial: Don't stop helping struggling homeowners

There's no shortage of good causes left wanting by Gov. Corbett's new budget. But Harrisburg lawmakers looking to plug funding gaps should focus some attention on helping struggling homeowners keep a roof over their heads.

A good way would be to restart an emergency home-loan program that helps owners stave off foreclosure until they get back on their feet financially. And reviving the program would require spending only about 1 percent of the state's expected surplus.

Given a three-decade track record of aiding communities, the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program should have survived the bruising budget battle triggered by Corbett's no-tax pledge. Instead, it emerged with a devastating, 80 percent funding cut, forcing officials to shutter the program at the end of June.

Had the mortgage crisis been resolved while no one was looking? Hardly. As many as 170,000 foreclosures are expected across the state by the end of next year.

With a price tag of just $10.4 million in its last year of operation, the mortgage assistance program could help thousands of those homeowners catch up with monthly payments.

There is similar aid available through a federal mortgage program, but that assistance runs out in the fall. So, that's all the more reason for state lawmakers to add this budget item to the General Assembly's appropriation to-do list following the summer break.

More than two-dozen housing, labor, church, and civic groups allied under the Pennsylvania Save Our Homes Coalition (pasaveourhomes.org) are working with both Republican and Democratic legislators to resurrect the mortgage aid program. That's the smart thing to do.