City launches $18M foreclosure effort - Boston Business Journal:

"The City of Boston will spend roughly $18 million to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and bring new buyers into the market in a program announced Wednesday by Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The program, called the Homeownership Stabilization Campaign, is a 12-month initiative to aid neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. The two-part program will provide equity to homeowners and stabilize housing prices in areas with high foreclosure rates by assisting new buyers in the purchase of homes. About $10 million comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, about $4 million is from the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development and another $4 million is coming from the City of Boston. The funds represent more than a 200 percent increase over last year’s homeownership budget, partly because of the $8.2 million in state and federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds Boston received. The City of Boston is also applying for $39 million in funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a second Neighborhood Stabilization Program. In a prepared written statement, Menino said the City of Boston has around 928 foreclosed homes primarily in East Boston, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Roxbury. Menino said the goal is to ensure foreclosed" I don't know, maybe I tend to over simplify things. I guess it is a fine jester, but isn't this how it all began, passing out money for homes people could not afford? How long has it been the government's business to do that of private banking? Is this where our stimulus is going? What is too big and cumbersome is government and its programs.