Months after a $700 million federal bailout package was approved, local municipal officials say the foreclosure crisis doesn't seem to be getting any better.

It's frustrating watching the news about the bailout for financial institutions, Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush said.

"Why aren't they helping the people who lost their homes get them back with mortgages they can afford?" she said. "How do you solve that? ... It's the corporations who are being bailed out. I don't see any impact in the community down to the local level."

Foreclosures continue to drag down property values for neighbors and increase costs for municipalities that have to maintain vacant lots when banks fail to take care of them, she said.

The low point of this nationwide crisis has yet to be determined, Lansing Village President Dan Podgorski said.

"All the information I've received on it is that it's going to continue to get a little bit worse yet through the end of 2008 and 2009 before the increase in foreclosures starts to taper off," he said.

"You'll still have foreclosures but the spike in new ones will start to dip toward the later half of 2009, (according to) projections I've seen in a couple of seminars. I don't know the crisis has hit rock bottom. I also think a lot of it has to do with what happens in the economy, certainly if we continue to see corporate America cutting jobs. If one or more of the Big 3 automakers goes bankrupt, you could have a crisis of epic proportions."

South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association Executive Director Ed Paesel said experts warned about the need to better regulate subprime lending for years before it became a national problem.

"(The foreclosure crisis) is a very serious issue and one we are working with our communities and Cook County and other regional entities to try to come up with the best plan we can to address that situation," he said.

Federal money won't go far when it comes to solving the crisis, considering the thousands of foreclosures in Cook County alone, Paesel said.

"When you look at the amount of money available, it's not going to cure by any means all the foreclosures," he said. "It's a small start and one we need to pay attention to, but it's such a massive problem the federal government can't provide the money to cure the problem."

Homeowners in foreclosure need a chance to have their mortgages restructured and be given the chance to repay their debt over a reasonable time period, South Holland Village President Don De Graff said.

Homeowners missing mortgage payments need to reach out to their lenders and try to find a solution, officials said. They agreed that easier credit flow from the banks will help with the available home buyers.

The federal government helping the banks is a smart move if it makes it easier for people to get credit to buy homes, De Graff said.

But they'll have to wait and see if easier credit really means fewer empty homes, Qualkinbush said.