Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan held a press conference Thursday with borrowers who saved their homes through the government's mortgage aid program called Making Home Affordable.

Since the program was launched in March, Mortgage companies have made more than 55,000 offers to modify borrowers' loans. So far, 14 companies that service about three quarters of the mortgage market have signed up and will be paid for each loan they modify.

While the number of success stories is growing, it pales compared to the rate of new foreclosures, and many housing counselors across the country are complaining that the Making Home Affordable is taking off slowly.

"Our experience at the ground level has been, so far, frustrating," said Michael van Zalingen, director of homeownership at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, a counseling group. Entry-level employees at mortgage companies, he said, are either steering borrowers away from the plan or are entirely unaware of it.

Guy Cecala, publisher of trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance, doesn't expect to see large volumes of loan modifications before July or August. "The basic problem is that the program is very complicated and involved to set up," Cecala said.

The government program, unlike others before it, requires numerous changes to how the mortgage industry does business. To get a loan modification, borrowers must provide proof of their income and send in a letter stating why they need help.

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