DOVER — Gov. Chris Christie today admitted the state initially made mistakes in setting up a program intended to help people facing foreclosure, but has since added staff and loosened regulations.

“Sometimes, I know it’s going to be shocking for everyone to hear, government doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to,” Christie said at a news conference following a health center tour.

He said the state has now distributed $41 million of $300 million in federal funds. When asked about the issue last week, Christie said the program was slow to distribute funds because a moratorium on foreclosure brought “less urgency” to the problem.

Today he added that Richard Constable, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, made changes to the program after his predecessor, Lori Grifa, left the department. Christie appointed both Grifa and Constable to the cabinet-level post.

“Our criteria in (Constable’s) opinion was too stringent under the last commissioner and it caused a lot of people to be rejected who should have been accepted because the last commissioner’s focus was on preventing fraud and so he went back and relooked at those well before this conversation,” Christie said. “He loosened up the criteria a bit and the money has flowed a lot more easily since then.”

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