My mom owns her condo and has equity in it, but she lives on social security so her income is too low to get it refinanced with some cash out to help with bills.
http://answers.usa.gov/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1000&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=US&ARTICLE_ID=11567
or
/www.usa.gov/topics/money/credit/debt/out-of-control.shtml