diff --git a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/filters/VECHomopolymer.java b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/filters/VECHomopolymer.java
index f33fe54c5..91b960f53 100755
--- a/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/filters/VECHomopolymer.java
+++ b/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/filters/VECHomopolymer.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.walkers.filters;
 
+import net.sf.picard.reference.ReferenceSequence;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.contexts.AlignmentContext;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.gatk.contexts.VariantContext;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.BaseUtils;
@@ -9,8 +10,6 @@ import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 
-import net.sf.picard.reference.ReferenceSequence;
-
 
 /**
  * Created by IntelliJ IDEA.
@@ -33,7 +32,7 @@ public class VECHomopolymer implements VariantExclusionCriterion {
         if ( args.get("extent") != null )
             extent = Integer.valueOf(args.get("extent"));
         if ( args.get("fraction") != null )
-            frac = Integer.valueOf(args.get("fraction"));
+            frac = Float.valueOf(args.get("fraction"));
 
         File refFile = new File ("/seq/references/Homo_sapiens_assembly18/v0/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta");