Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program is not a one-step solution that will solve the country’s foreclosure problem. He stressed that the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is not meant to keep cash-strapped homeowners afloat, adding that foreclosures are bound to happen with or without the program.

Geithner’s statement came after it was reported that many borrowers have exited the multibillion federal assistance program since it was implemented a year ago. He also made the comment in response to the question posed by Congressional Oversight Panel Kenneth Troske, who said that the homeownership rate over the latest 15 years is one of the main causes of the housing crisis.

“This program was not designed to prevent foreclosures. It was not designed to sustain homeownership at a level that would be unachievable, imprudent to try and do,” the nation’s top treasury official said in a testimony to the watchdog panel that monitors HAMP.  Geithner also stressed that the government is doing its best to help as many families as it can when he was repeatedly asked by the panel to give “metrics” on what he consider a successful program.

Oversight panel chair Elizabeth Warren said she was “shocked” with Geithner’s testimony. “I was very surprised. And very frustrated by the notion that the secretary seemed to be saying that a program that helps only a tiny handful of families facing foreclosure is a successful program because, in effect, the rest deserve to lose their homes,” she said.

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