The Los Angeles Times ran an article this morning that shows the need of the government to rethink some of the ways it tries to help people escape poverty and achieve financial success. The article cited the federal government's Dollar Homes program as an example of good intentions gone bad.
The program began in 1998 with the intention of clearing the Department of Housing and Urban Development's books of foreclosures and providing affordable housing to lower income people. The plan was that local governments would buy the homes for $1, fix them up and resell them at a discount to poor families, who would get a chance to put down roots in the community. According to the article, that's not what happened:
"More than 2,300 homes have been sold by HUD for $1 each nationwide, with 326 in California. Nearly half of the homes in California were bought by companies or individuals who typically resold them at a much higher price. Only 15% were sold to nonprofit housing groups such as Habitat for Humanity, records show."
The article sites one specific example of the program's failure:
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