WASHINGTON (March 12, 2010)--The Obama administration's mortgage relief plan has helped only about 16 percent of the borrowers who’ve signed up since the program’s launch last year, and hundreds of thousands of homeowners are still in limbo without an answer.

The Treasury Department says that as of last month, about 170,000 homeowners had completed the application process and had their loan payments reduced permanently, compared with nearly 1.1 million homeowners who have enrolled since the plan started.

About 90,000 homeowners have dropped out so far, either because they failed to make payments or because they didn't return paperwork.

The program is intended to lower borrowers' monthly payments by reducing mortgage rates to as low as 2 percent for five years and extending loan terms to as long as 40 years.