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Update: Reporting Matchmaker a Success

The millions of struggling homeowners seeking mortgage modifications commonly encounter confusion, errors and months of delay. ProPublica has now matched 140 journalists nationwide with some of those homeowners to help tell their stories.

Click here for details on our home loan modification matchmaker.When we started our home loan modification matchmaker two weeks ago, we had one goal: helping local journalists cover the human side of the mortgage modification story. As we've been reporting for months, the millions of struggling homeowners seeking modifications commonly encounter confusion, errors and months of delay. We've heard from hundreds of homeowners who've applied for the program; and in the last two weeks, we've seen how eager reporters are to tell their stories. More than 150 journalists have already signed up for our matchmaker program -- reporters, bloggers, columnists, radio hosts and filmmakers who want to talk to struggling homeowners in their areas.

And we're already starting to see results. With our help, journalists in Washington and Florida were able to put a human face on the situation. Shawn Vestal of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane told the story of Jim and Sheri Schafer's two-year battle to modify their home loan, while Kimberly Miller of The Palm Beach Post talked to Wayne Henthorn about his campaign to modify a mortgage worth $120,000 more than his house. These two stories are the tip of the iceberg -- with more than 140 homeowners matched with journalists nationwide, we're expecting even more stories in the coming days.

Every story published helps shed light on how the loan modification program is working. Sign up for a matchmaker program now to help us tell this story (journalists here -- homeowners here).

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