. >> reporter: a year and half ago, an injury took carole howell off the job, cutting her family's income in half. she fell behind on the mortgage and to avoid foreclosure sought help from the government's housing affordable mortgage program, known as hamp. >> i felt relief, i thought, when we left the library that night, you know, "this is okay, it's going to be okay, because there's a program out there that's going to help us." >> reporter: but she was rejected because her mortgage had been packaged and sold to investors. iane chipollone is an attorney and a director of the sustainable homeownership project for civil justice. she says many clients who could be helped by hamp are not. >> they are denied, oftentimes with either inconsistent reasons for the denial, or not a sufficient explanation of the denial, but then told "oh, by the way, maybe we can review you for our own in-house or proprietary loan modification." >> reporter: proprietary loan modifications are done by loan servicers and don't have to follow hamp guidelines. under a hamp mod, a borrower's monthly payment can be no mo