The U.S. Housing Secretary was in Portland Thursday to discuss how best to help people avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. The administration is promoting three bills that are expected to be considered by Congress this fall.

The housing crisis is in its fourth year. But the various fixes Congress has come up with so far, have not been popular.

For example, only 12 percent of the funds in the federal “Modification Program” have been dispersed; and only six percent of eligible home owners have refinanced under the government’s “Refinance Program.”

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan says Congress needs a way for people who are underwater on their homes to refinance their eight percent mortgages into four percent mortgages.

Donovan explained, “These banks aren’t going to willingly give up these loans.What we have to do is give families an option to come to FHA to refinance their loans. That’s what these bills would do.”

John Miller of the Oregon Opportunity Network attended the discussion. He says there more people are refinancing now. But, he stressed, a lot of homeowners are still in foreclosure and the banks still own a lot of homes that they’ve yet to put on the market.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.