The Federal Housing Administration has grown so large that by the end of the year it will guarantee mortgages for three in 10 U.S. borrowers, many of whom have bad credit or loans that required no verification of income.

Congress wants FHA to do more. The Hope for Homeowners program, unveiled Oct. 1, authorizes the agency, part of the cabinet-level Department of Housing and Urban Development, to guarantee up to $300 billion of 30-year, fixed rate home loans for struggling borrowers over the next three years. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 400,000 households will get FHA- insured loans and about one-third of those will fall behind again on their new loans.

Hope for Homeowners is one way the U.S. government is trying to prevent further losses in the worst housing decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The rewritten mortgages may not be enough to stem rising defaults, said David Olson, a 40-year veteran of the U.S. mortgage industry.

``FHA has completely replaced subprime and Alt-A,'' said Olson, former director of market research at Freddie Mac, the second-biggest mortgage buyer, who now runs Wholesale Access Mortgage Research & Consulting Inc. in Columbia, Maryland. ``I hope it's not setting them up for another crackup. There have been so many crackups.''

Subprime mortgages are given to people with bad or limited credit histories. Alt-A home loans typically require little or no documentation of a borrower's income.

STOCKTON, Calif. -- A last-ditch effort to head off an Oct. 1 ban on the use of seller-funded down-payment assistance with FHA-backed loans is picking up steam as a compromise bill, that would mend rather than end the practice, gains momentum.

HR 6694, which would allow home builders to continue funneling down-payment assistance through nonprofit groups to home buyers using FHA loans, is certain to pass the House of Representatives and has the blessing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said at a hearing on foreclosures this weekend.

The influential chairman of the House Financial Services Committee urged those attending a committee field hearing in Stockton Saturday to lobby the Senate -- which shoehorned language banning seller-funded gifts into HR 3221, the sweeping housing bill signed into law July 30 -- in support of the bill.

HR 6694 would automatically allow qualified borrowers with credit scores of 680 or above to use seller-funded down-payment assistance on FHA-backed loans, Frank said. Borrowers with scores between 620-680 who relied on seller-funded gifts might be subject to higher insurance premium fees.

Borrowers with scores below 620 would be excluded from using down-payment assistance until mid-2009, when HUD would be permitted to expand the program to include them if the Secretary of Housing determined it could be done without putting a dent in FHA's insurance requiring taxpayer subsidies.

HUD has sought to end the use of seller-funded down-payment assistance with FHA loans outright, claiming the practice artificially inflates home prices and that borrowers who relied on the gifts are more likely to default.