The federal plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure is taking some time to get off the ground.

FOX Business has confirmed that as of close of business on Friday, October 24, only 83 mortgages are under consideration for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) “Hope for Homeowners” foreclosure prevention program, which would allow the mortgages to be restructured and refinanced by the government.

An FHA spokesman told FOX Business the program “has really been open for less than four weeks.”

The Hope for Homeowners program involves $300 billion in funding available for struggling homeowners. When it launched on Oct. 1, the FHA boasted that, “as many as 400,000 homeowners could avoid foreclosure through this program over the next three years,” according to its Web site.

Under plan guidelines, the FHA will back renegotiated loans if lenders agree to lower the principal on the original loan to 90% of the current value of the house.

Hope for Homeowners will continue to accept applications until September 30, 2011.