Where Is The Money?
If you’re anything like me then you get sick of hearing numbers and dollar signs flying around all the time. It seems that ever new story or study that comes out has a new picture to paint of the current crisis. So it’s hard to put your finger on just how bad things have gotten.
Now if you’re expecting me to have some massive revelation in the next line … you’re going to be disappointed. What I’ve just read is more of the same. You see, unemployment is still sky high. And some people are still acting like it’s big news. Well, surprising news at least.
So here’s the latest plan. The government is going to loan struggling homeowners a whopping (here comes the first number of the article) $1 billion to catch up on mortgage payments. The most any individual can have of the pie is (get ready) $50,000, plus (hold on) 24 months of mortgage payments.
So starting at the end of this year, applicants can try and get in on the action. Now, they claim they’ve learned some lessons from other loan attempts. But something about loaning unemployed people money with no strings attached just seems a little fishy to me. Not that I’m insensitive or anything.
But how much sense does it make to give such generous terms to people who are unemployed? Again, I’m all for programs that help people get back on their feet, and no one is blaming someone in today’s economy for being unemployed. But taking housing money and using it for loans just doesn’t make sense. Unemployment is a jobs issue, not a housing issue.
Am I crazy here? Do any of you out there agree with me? Let housing money be applied to housing solutions and let unemployment money battle unemployment.
