MALIBU BAY, Fla. - Leslee Ramos bought a three-bedroom townhome in Malibu Bay, Florida, for $255,000 three years ago. The home is now valued at just $121,000.

"In the past I've tried thousands of things that they've said -- new programs that they're going to help the homebuyers and nothing has worked out," Ramos said.

On top of losing property value, Ramos also lost her job and now her home is in foreclosure.

"Right now I'm so far behind that I'm just afraid that the bank is going to foreclose on my property," she said.

Ramos' story is echoed by millions of other Americans worried about losing their homes after losing their jobs. The White House is trying to take aggressive action to fix both problems.

The Obama administration has unveiled a new plan to help low-income and first-time housing buyers. State housing agencies will be able to provide new mortgages with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae providing credit lines. Taxpayers will back up the lending giants.

The National Council of State Housing Agencies approves of the program, but of course there are skeptics.

"State and local housing finance administrations provide a lot of assistance when it's needed, but we should not be fooled into thinking that this will help hundreds of thousands of people very quickly," said University of Maryland economist Peter Morici. "It's more like tens of thousands -- and slowly!"

A new ABC Washington Post poll shows, for the first time, the number of Americans who approve of the president's handling of the economy has slipped to 50 percent. And Vice President Biden seems to have modified his line that the stimulus package is working to now reflect the more sober reality U.S. workers are facing.

"It's a depression -- it's a depression for millions of Americans, through no fault of their own," Biden said.

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing Tuesday morning about extending the housing credit which is set to expire in December.

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