As Foreclosure Help Rises, Dissent Does Also
Local governments around the U.S are starting to lend out money to homeowners in trouble. As they do so, they are being confronted with opposition.These state and municipal efforts are being met with resistance from some people who think that the assistance is undeserved. Some people are extremely opposed to anything that looks like the taxpayers are bailing out the private homeowners.
In Seattle, the local government began a simple program in January and began offering loans up to and including five thousand dollars in order to help a few homeowners who are in danger of losing their homes. The people of Seattle are considered to be prosperous and very nice. However, as soon as the Mayor, one Greg Nickels, announce the foreclosure help program, opposition began.
A resident posted a complaint on a newspaper website that stated that they did not want the money of the taxpayers to be used to bail private homeowners out of trouble even if the mayor was justifying it.
The manager of Seattle’s homeownership program, Mark Ellerbrook said that apart from a few residents who have tried to apply, there are not many people who think the program is a good idea. He stated that people in the city struggle to buy homes and then the program looks as if the city is handing money over to homeowners that have just make bad choices.
In the state of Massachusetts there is an agency called MassHousing. Mass Housing started a loan refinancing program last year that relied on revenue from bonds. The agency eventually had to make it clear after their initial public relations efforts, that the program would not be funded by taxpayer money.
Foreclosure help programs are designed to not only to prevent people from losing possession of their property but to also limit economic fallout on a broader scale. This includes the dramatically dropping revenue from property taxes and the widespread decline in the value of homes. Even so, these programs contrast what governmental officials say when they say these programs offer practical solutions for everyone with what individual people believe of personal responsibility and fairness.
The opposition to foreclosure help programs could be based on an underlying universal belief of the deserving versus and the undeserving. People may believe that you are undeserving when you have made bad choices.
Though people have reacted negatively, the reactions have in no way caused the assistance programs to stop, a number of local officials have become defensive and want the originators of these programs to market the program to not only the people in need of the assistance but also to the general public.
A program in North Carolina announced a program that would take three hundred thousand dollars worth of taxpayer money and give it to people in charge of mortgage counseling in order to help homeowners with refinancing. The bank commissioner, Joseph Smith made the statement however that the program is not a bailout and that nobody’s mortgage is being paid off.
Government-supported “rescue” loan programs are usually used when there is a foreclosure problem. These efforts have been presented as having a broad range of benefits just as some health programs for the public have been portrayed.
The Seattle program is supposed to assist about forty homeowners who are currently being dealing with the foreclosure process. Programs in such states as Massachusetts, Ohio, and Maryland are also directed toward foreclosure “rescue”. Some of these programs use taxpayer money in a direct way while other programs use money from the selling of bonds and other things. Some programs require homeowners to eventually pay the loan off in full but some completely forgive the loan.
The government has historically assisted in times where there was a foreclosure crisis. In the 1930s, the government established the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation. This helped refinance a million loans and a profit was made. This past December, Alan Greenspan suggested the government assist those who were facing foreclosure. The Bush administration has focused on getting lenders to refinance and restructure home loans but there are some critics that feel it is not clear if people will be helped.
As for the critics of these foreclosure help programs, Bruce Marks, the Chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, says that before one criticizes people taking advantage of these help programs, they should ask people they know if their homes are being foreclosed on. He said that it is most likely that someone close to you them is about to lose their home but they were too embarrassed to say anything.
Despite mounting opposition, foreclosure rescue problems will continue to develop and the increase in foreclosures will continue.
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The opposition to bailing out homeowners in foreclosure isn’t that surprising. After all, the people who are keeping on top of their increased property taxes while their homes are declining in value are looking for someone to blame for these circumstances. Homeowners who bought homes they could not afford with money that wasn’t theirs and didn’t make a down payment aren’t really homeowners in any true sense of the word. They’re more like renters from a bank landlord who doubles the rent. Just giving them a few thousand dollars only prolongs the eventual eviction.
People don’t want to feel like they are subsidizing deadbeats who bought more than they could ever afford. Of course, not every homeowner in foreclosure is an actual deadbeat, but the presence of a few gives the perception of many more than is actually the case, and makes other homeowners reluctant to provide help.
OOPS! SAW ALL MY “TYPOS”
BUT I AM SURE AN AVERAGE PERSON CAN RAD BETWEEN THE LINES AND UNDERSTAND MY LAST MESSAGE