States: Let taxpayers cover your mortgage

[Bindare_Dundat]

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/12/news/economy/taxpayer_mortgages/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unemployed? Owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth? Your state might one day pay your mortgage.

Giving people free money to cover their home loans is just one of the radical ways that four states -- Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona -- plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and underwater avoid foreclosure.

Many consumer advocates have said the government should help cover the payments of these troubled homeowners, lest the mortgage crisis continue spinning out of control and dragging down everyone's property values. But other housing experts warn that paying off loans creates a moral hazard and could actually dissuade people from looking for work.

Innovative programs, however, are exactly what the administration was hoping for when it unveiled the Hardest Hit Fund initiative in February. Officials are looking to help the unemployed and underwater, who are now at the heart of the crisis. Despite the administration's best efforts to stabilize the market, home prices are still sliding and foreclosure filings are at record highs.

[Soul Crusher]

We are so screwed its not even funny. 

Yet, you still have idiots supporting all this insanity. 

[BM OUT]

Perfect,lets reward lazy useless idiots.How come those that do the right thing NEVER get a helping hand from government.How about a year off from income taxes for those that have made their mortgage payments?

[MRDUMPLING]

I wouldn't say useless is the best term to describe laid off workers.  If there is no money, there is no money, even if you do take a job paying much less, if the money isn't there you can't pay the mortgage.  It isn't about people taking on loans they couldn't either; people lost their jobs so how do you expect them to pay for it?

This government handout will not solve the problem either.  I have made my point many times that government solutions aren't the answer and only punish the people that at the moment are keeping this country going.

Before anybody jumps down my throat about my response it is in reply to many here that think that just because someone is losing their home, or have lost their job, that they are lazy and/or took on a loan that they shouldn't have.  My industry(construction/engineering/surveying) has been devastated by the housing market implosion.  I know many(too many) that have lost their jobs and taken work making much less than what they were making.  It has nothing to do with lazyness or responsibility; in fact they have been responsible by taking jobs that they wouldn't have in the first place to stay off the government dole and to feed their families.  They are just trying to survive at the moment.  I would appreciate that those of you that haven't been directly affected by this recession that people that have lost jobs for any real length of time usually lose their homes too due to there being no work.  An emergency fund will only take you so far especially considering this recession has hit my industry for close to two years now. 

Ok, I'm off my soap box now.