The state is rolling out a new relief program for homeowners late on their mortgage payments and facing income hardships, like a job loss or reduction in work hours.

Starting Wednesday, 100 slots will open up for homeowners in 33 counties across the state, giving them a chance to receive up to $30,000 in mortgage payment assistance through the “Home Rescue Program.”

Homeowners in the three Portland-area counties will not be eligible at the start. More slots will open after the first 100 are filled, said Ben Pray, spokesman for the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative.

The funds will help delinquent homeowners get current on their mortgage payments. The state hopes it will help 2,500 homeowners.

Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative, which is overseeing the Home Rescue Program, was launched by the Oregon Department of Housing and Community Services in 2010 to administer foreclosure-prevention programs funded by $220 million in U.S. Treasury Department money.

The Home Rescue Program is basically a revamped version of another Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative effort. State officials hoped the Loan Preservation Assistance program would help 2,000 Oregonians recover up to $20,000 in missed mortgage payments. But long waiting periods and confusing eligibility requirements plagued it from the start: Just 300 residents were helped by the program before it ended earlier this year.

“After we launched the first time around, it got off to kind of a slow start,” Pray said. “But we think we’re in a better position now.”

Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative has three times as many staffers today to manage the programs and screen applicants to make sure they’re eligible.

In total, Oregon, 17 other states and Washington, D.C., received $7.6 billion from the Treasury Department to set up foreclosure relief programs. The federal government designated those areas especially hard hit by the foreclosure crisis and high unemployment rates following the 2008 market crash.

Oregon has helped about 8,000 homeowners with its $220 million share through a series of mortgage payment and loan refinance initiatives.

The Home Rescue Program will be the state’s last to tap into the Treasury funds, Pray said.

For more information

To apply for, or get more information about, the Home Rescue Program, visit www.oregonhomeownerhelp.org