Great Idea

I ran into a Madhouse employee the other day who said there's talk of closing down another unit out there. Where I work, there's a hiring freeze...and vague rumblings about layoffs. Because I'm the Benefits Acquisition Specialist, I hear a lot of stories from people about not being able to find work, not being able to make house and car payments, not being able to get healthcare. And affordable housing - when your income is zero to $678/month (SSI), there is no affordable housing. The wait lists on Section 8s are years long in most cases. It's a grim-getting-grimmer picture.

I haven't heard his inaguaral speech yet, but I'm hoping the new president calls us all to action and inspires us to work together to prevent massive harm to millions of our fellow citizens.

I'm a philosophy major ... I can't help taking big pictures in my mind.... My senior honors thesis was on Utopias. I'm always marching to Utopia....which March is getting more difficult lately. If the March to Utopia is pictured as a conestoga wagon traveling from Philadelphia to Sacramento, I'm in the Mohave Desert just now...or maybe even the Sahara.

Be that as it may, we're having unprecedented foreclosures - I'm sure you've noticed. Neighborhoods like mine have many empty houses. The financial crisis began with housing, and will end with it, I'm guessing.

Put it all together in one big picture, and here's an idea to help get us through the desert: The community uses Stimulus Package money to establish an authority which will 1) acquire foreclosed homes, 2) hire unemployed construction workers to renovate and maintain them as necessary, 3) rent them at affordable rates to those in need of housing (i.e. the homeless and those about to be homeless ), 4) provide approprate "benefits ascquisition counseling and assistance" to persons in that housing to enhance their opportunities for success and 5) provide administrative oversight to assure that the properties are well managed and serve the maximum number of needy citizens.

In one fell swoop, you've provided help for the housing market and given some stability to housing values, your've created jobs for the unemployed, and affordable housing with appropriate help for people who are at most risk. It's a great idea, isn't it? Simple and obvious, the way a great idea should be.

I'm sure somebody in government is already working on it.