by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: December 28, 2009

It is frustrating to watch while homeowners today are being offered relief and support, when others have already lost homes and moved on. But now, the problem is so pervasive that there is a domino effect that is causing economic turmoil, areas of empty and deterioriating housing, and a host of social and infrastructure problems from decimated neighborhoods. In other words, the problem is too big to ignore.

In the issue of helping struggling homeowners, however, the government intervention and support could be limited to forcing lenders to renegotiate the loans, not in handing them even more money that they are not entitled to. A simple governmental directive to lower the interest rates, forgive backlogs in payments, and to negotiate a reasonable monthly payment is all that is required.

Otherwise, the government should just forclose on the banks, take over ownership of pre foreclosure homes, then pool the manpower and resources of the VA, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, HUD, and the FHA and run the whole show. To help with this, the government could put some unemployed or underemployed real estate and mortgage workers to work in managing the program, creating some jobs in the process.

What most people do not understand is that with the quasi governmental organizations, the public profile of the size of government may be hidden, but the liability and responsibility never went away. As a result, it may look like the banks are on their own, but the government is actually on the hook for a massive chunk of the risk in housing lending.

This leads to the problems created by those who want "less government". The same politicians and their supporters had not one bit of problem with eight years of not only more government, but pushed for eight years of the worst, most corrupt, and most destructive government in our nation's history.

Something has to be done to clean up the mess, and the government stepping in to prevent housing that remains empty and deteriorating, neighborhoods in decline, people who can afford to pay being made homeless, and the gross and unethical practices of the banking industry going on without consequences is not the way to fix the mess. The current obstructionist attitudes of a noisy, yet minority segment of our population needs to be ignored, or at least to get far less attention,  in favor of getting a fix on one of the greatest economic disasters in world history.

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