U.S. Rep. Barney Frank will push to redirect some repaid bank bailout money toward unemployed workers in danger of losing their homes.

Frank, D-Newton, is sponsoring legislation that would make low-interest loans available to the unemployed so they can make their mortgage payments and prevent foreclosure.

His bill envisions using $2 billion that bank have repaid the government from bailouts they received under the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

Frank said the federal help would not go to people who bought homes they could not afford.

The assistance would be for people who were making their mortgage payments faithfully until they lost their jobs. The move is aimed at preventing the home foreclosure rate from climbing and further depressing home values.

It comes shortly after the government announced that the national unemployment rate had risen to 9.9 percent and the foreclosure rate in August reached 18 percent.

Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, represents a district that includes Norton, Mansfield, Foxboro and Norfolk.