Are you living in Florida and facing foreclosure? According to WWSB ABC 7 Florida foreclosures, were up about 6% last month. United way started up a hotline to help some people save their homes. United Way 2-1-1 of Manasota is a 24-7 hotline that connects callers with Suncoast groups offering assistance. More and more people are needing help so to accommodate this growth, 2-1-1 is expanding its reach.
You may be loosing your house, but there is a resolution. The newest plan is to “reach out to borrowers” and give them the information they need to save their houses. The goal is to let borrowers know what programs are out there that may help them keep their homes. But are the homeowners who are embarrassed by the fact that they can’t pay their mortgage going to bite?
Who’s willing to step up? A story from today’s Los Angeles Times got me wondering. The article looked at America’s history of providing financial bailouts and its efforts to get relief to those who “deserved” it while leaving the “undeserving” to twist in the wind. However in most cases the net was cast wide enough that many managed to game the system and get a break they didn’t need or deserve. So while it’s popular to sympathize with those in default on their homes, is anyone really willing to step up and pay the piper? Apparently those who made poor real estate investments or spent their money on trips and expensive cars have no problem asking their neighbors and fellow taxpayers to absorb the consequences of their decisions. But what are the neighbors to do? Let the foreclosure signs blight the neighborhood and make things worse? Sometimes it comes down to expedience and pragmatism rather than staking out some kind of moral high ground. Or, as US Representative Barney Frank claims, “I want to help the least undeserving people around.”
