After WWII returning veterans could apply for cheap GI loans that was one of the biggest public housing programs in our history. Hell, I spent my childhood in one of the those working class government subsidized communities. It didn't help Black vets as much because of Jim Crow practices in the real estate market.

We desperately need something like that now without the racial strings attached. When we sent the working class off to fight in WWII it was on the heels of the labor battles of the Great Depression. That's why returning WWII GI's got those great housing and educational benefits.

It's time we made some picket signs and give our rulers holy hell again. That and bringing our soldiers home from Iraq and Afghanistan is the best way to support the troops.

Bob Simpson
The BobboSphere

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Sometimes just a little simple help, or a little guidance, sometimes a lot of help and a bailout.

The point is, the government that employed them and deployed them offers them nothing.

In my area a bunch of lawyers, credit counsellors and financial planners have formed an informal pro bono syndicate to offer help to servicemen and women facing financial problems. It doesn't amount to much work--maybe seeing and helping a couple of people a week for an hour or so each. The things we do are simple: we put folks in touch with good credit counsellors who don't charge a fortune to help fix credit and consolidate to calm creditors down. There are a couple of grant writers who are looking for some money to help with low-cost loans. The financial pros help minimize taxes and maximize return as far as possible, and the lawyers play a little hardball with the mortgage companies.

It's very rewarding, and it's our way of giving a little bit back to these folks who had to watch their personal lives slip while they were far away in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Any legal/financial types in the crowd ought to try to help out a little. Its no big deal with organization--just a little cooperation among professionals can get a lot accomplished, and make some worries a little more manageable for a deserving bunch of folks.

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Institutionalizing a life of debt?

check, soldier

Clever marketing?

check, soldier

The consequence, on average, was foreclosed, so to speak.

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It doesn't have anything to do with not being able to afford the mortgage payments.

The military pays the mortgage on your house for you (via a monthly stipend linked to location and paygrade that can only be spent on rent/mortgage).

Military personnel are typically only stationed in a location for 4 years at a stretch.

These homes were not being bought for the long haul, they were being bought as a short term investment with the intention of flipping them in a few years when the service member moved to their next assignment. With housing prices falling it makes no sense to continue to pay a mortgage on a property you'll have to sell at a loss. It makes a lot more sense to just move into base housing until that assignment ends.

Further, having your house foreclosed on is not something that reflects well upon a person in the military. There have been people kicked out of the military for writing a bad check. Bad credit means denial of security clearances and disciplinary action from your commander.

Therefore, I don't believe many of these homes being foreclosed upon are owned by military personnel at all. I believe they are owned by civilian speculators that bought near the peak of the bubble with the expectation of being able to rent/sell to a military member at a premium.

The fact is most career military don't own homes until they leave the service.

Whoever wrote this should have looked a little more into the who and why rather than just the what.

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Real Estate ownership is Public Info.

If uniformed armed forces personnel were paid Blackwater wages they could buy the market in military towns.

Oh well.

Hail The Chief.

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There is a simple Solution to the Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis for these poor folks in our Military and those elsewhere facing the trauma of foreclosure and eviction..

All we have to do is Peg the Sub-Prime mortgages at 3% above the Fed rate or even Prime rate and forgive the penalties to date..1/2 of which are illegal anyway as reported if not more..

This way no lending institution loses money the people keep their homes and not one dime of tax payer money is involved..

We can limit it so that this does not go below 6.25% so they do not start paying less than others with a fixed rate more stable mortgage..

We now know also that this crisis as well as the Enron Loop hole allowing this insane criminal speculation on Oil prices were both due to that criminal Texan Phil Gramm..who should already be in shackles along with John McCain who helped him cause all this misery and loss of billions and pain for so many..

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