Help for Homeowners

by Scott Feldman

Just got back from Willow Street in Central Islip. On just a few short blocks, there are no less than a dozen homes in foreclosure. With the owners long gone, the houses are boarded up. And the yards are in disrepair. And sadly, surrounding these houses are many long time residents. Two elderly couples have been there 30 and 40 years. Another young woman I spoke with just moved from the West Coast. Her husband is in the U.S.Army. They have a toddler son. All are frustrated about the condition of their neighborhood. They are doing their best to keep up their properties. But it saddens them to see what has happened, especially with the realization that their homes, through no fault of their own, have almost certainly declined in value. Meantime, in Washington, just a week before his inauguration, Barack Obama is pressing to have much of the remaining $350 billion in financial industry bailout funds go toward helping homeowners threatened by foreclosure. And both Democrats in the House and Senate are moving forward to use a big chunk of the funds, anywhere from $40 to $100 billion channeled into programs for modifying mortgages into affordable loans. Key lawmakers have signaled that action could be taken even before Obama raises his right hand on the steps of the Capitol next Tuesday. If not then, certainly soon afterwards. There are far too many Long Islanders facing what happened to those who once owned homes on Willow Street. Hopefully, a fresh start in Washington can provide meaningful help for them.  

Comments

[tom]

We are going to need all the help we can get from the gov't, I saw a good article in Newsday's Saturday 01/17 paper,"Banks gettng help have tax haven units", should have been front page, but I think the article confirms the mortgage and financial woes of Long Island, if not, also the country. Over the years, banks have been setting up foreign subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes in the U.S., and at the present time are taking "bailout" money. These banks have got to stop, I hope companies like News12 and Newsday could possibly follow up on such an article to aid "us" tax paying citizens.

[John]

While I feel for the people who were steered into mortgages they couldn't necessarily afford, the fact of the matter is that they invested in an unstable real estate market. Saving them is only going to continue to inflate the market and raise prices for the rest of us. (Not to mention that taxpayer money is being used to make it happen.)

Did we bail out the people who got in too late on the Beanie Baby craze? Do we call for government funds to prop up the baseball card market? Then, frankly, the only help the "underwater mortgage" people should get is the ability to walk away from the loan, and MAYBE a refund of the mortgage interest.

The sooner the we get government hands off the economy, the quicker we can find out what everything's worth and move forward. Measures like this sound nice, but they're just prolonging what's already turning into a depression.

[Deanna]

"...Just got back from Willow Street in Central Islip..."

How severe were your gunshot wounds?