Unfettered Letters

Foreclosures are sad

As I watched the news last week concerning the foreclosure auction, I could not help but feel sorry for those individuals who had lost their homes.

It seems the local news anchors were so excited about what a great deal we could get buying these homes. Did they stop and think that perhaps the families who lost these homes were viewing the news as well?

Debra Luptak
Lee’s Summit

Blaming the taxpayers

In the current stimulus package, there is a lot of concern with helping people who have purchased homes they could not afford. However, no one seems to consider that our states have built highways and bridges that they cannot maintain properly with their current gasoline tax. But woe to the politician who proposes to raise the gasoline tax to a level necessary to properly maintain our roads and bridges, much less build new highways and bridges.

Who’s to blame? Why us, of course, the taxpayers. Now we find our state governors complaining that the bailout package is insufficient to repair our roads and bridges. Are we, as states, behaving any differently from homeowners who purchased homes they could not afford?

Paul L. Redfearn Jr.
Independence

Defending Obama’s help for homeowners

Some people oppose President Obama’s efforts to rescue foreclosure victims because they object to giving aid to those whom they say fraudulently bought lavish homes they knew they couldn’t afford. They are, in effect, punishing the many for the sins of a few.

There has never been, nor will there likely ever be a government program designed to help the needy that is 100 percent fraud-proof and crime-free. Why not go after the criminals who scam the system instead of trashing the entire program, effectively sealing the fate of the very people the program was designed to help?

Either the people who oppose this program don’t understand or they don’t care that forcing the vast majority to suffer due to the ills of a small minority is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater once a tiny flaw has been exposed.

Eddie L. Clay
Grandview

Government help for homeowners

Count me in. I want some of that free money, too. I’m a homeowner who has made every mortgage payment on time for more than 16 years, because I bought a house I could afford, not a house they said I could qualify for.

So now the Obama administration is rewarding people who spent 38 percent of their income on a home and reducing the loan value to 31 percent (2/19, A-1, “Obama offers a huge hand to troubled homeowners”).

My house is now worth about $200,000. Just cut me a check for the same 7 percent as other people are getting, and we’ll call it square!

Craig S. Fisch
Lenexa

Let me see if I understand, Mr. Obama. I faithfully paid off my mortgage over a 25-year period. I didn’t buy more house than I could afford. My wife was a stay-at-home mom with four children. We lived on one income. I never even considered her working outside our home while our children were growing up. I have been through five recessions as a homeowner.

Now that my home is finally paid for, President Obama and the Democratic Congress pass a spending bill that will require me to pay taxes to subsidize mortgages of homeowners who should have never qualified for a loan in the first place.

It’s called socialism.

Wilson Winch
Independence

I’m glad David L. Davis (2/22, Letters) can pay his bills and has an excellent credit score. Someday, if he loses his job or a spouse who supplemented his household income, maybe he’ll see what’s in the stimulus package for him.

And I wouldn’t consider him a “loser” for taking the help offered to him.

Karen Zentz
Lee’s Summit

As goes the housing market …

The Star printed a map of the United States showing where housing prices have declined (2/6, A-1). You might want to tell your art department to hang on to that map. I believe it can have multiple uses. You won’t have to change a thing.

The uses could include: concentration of illegal aliens, highest crime areas, longest wait times for emergency rooms, concentration of gang activity and most uninsured motorists.

Jim Schnacke
Merriam

Vacant property in KC

It’s about time Kansas City takes a more proactive stance against the growing population of vacant homes (2/5, Opinion). On my block, five of the nine homes surrounding us are vacant. One house has been vacant more than 20 years.

My concerns: How will the city enforce this ordinance and get the owners to register? For once they do, will they be hit with a fine? It’s hard enough getting these owners to keep the grass on their properties trimmed. The billing process when the city is forced to cut it must be atrocious. Won’t the city have similar problems with this ordinance?

How will the city know the home is vacant if the owner does not register? Will the city provide a procedure to report homes in your neighborhood that have been vacant for more than three months? If not, the ordinance may be no better than the paper it was written on.

Sandy Diehl
Kansas City

Every home needs two exits

I read about the people who burned up in a duplex because they only had one door to the apartment, the front door (12/28, A-10, “Kerosene heater fire kills 7”). They had no escape.

Common sense would tell anyone that security starts at home. Any place should have a front door and a back door. I lived in one apartment with one door, and I couldn’t take it. I had to move out.

It’s sad. That should be a law — two doors.

Martha L. Farmer
Gardner

Mayor’s lack of leadership

Kansas City councilwoman Cindy Circo has done an outstanding job as chair of the Housing Committee. She has worked countless hours and is trying to make Kansas City a better place to live for all of our citizenry.

Mayor Funkhouser obviously doesn’t agree, as he took the chair post from her (11/8, A-1, “Mayor takes council to court”). This is the second time he has taken a chair away from an excellent councilperson (Ed Ford).

Recently, two respected members of the mayor’s office have resigned (Ed Wolf and Joe Miller). I hope sooner rather than later we will receive effective leadership from the mayor’s office. It certainly hasn’t happened for the past 18 months.

John Tancredi
Kansas City

Upscale mortgage fraud case

Thanks to those who brought justice to those responsible for this local mortgage-fraud case (10/30, A-1, “17 indicted in upscale mortgage fraud case”).

I would like to see some of the money from the $700 billion rescue plan be used to help get people back into homes that were lost to illegal foreclosures, help people to stay in their houses and compensate some of the homeowners in neighborhoods where their house values were lowered by these illegal foreclosures.

I would like Sen. Claire McCaskill and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to help Missourians to achieve the above goals.

Betty K. Lusby
Village of Loch Lloyd

Life isn’t all about money

The future of America was brought to my attention by two articles in The Star. One was regarding Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow, who was suspended for one game, costing him $235,294 (10/22, Sports, “Browns suspend Winslow; General manager fed up with tight end’s remarks about health issue”).

The other article was about a soldier injured in Iraq and on disability compensation. He has not been able to pay his last three house payments of $532 per month and is about to lose his home (10/22, A-1, “Nation’s foreclosure crisis falls harder on its veterans”).

As a retired teacher, counselor and public school administrator, I’m concerned that fewer are entering the profession due to salaries. However, many are still involved because of the values and leadership they want to show our youth.

One great role model is Tony Severino, who coached for me at Shawnee Mission Northwest before going to Rockhurst High in 1984. Tony has coached for more than 35 years, and his total supplemental coaching salary will not match Winslow’s one-game pay, but Tony doesn’t do it for the money. It is his ministry.

Let’s all work to change America’s future generations, educationally, socially and economically.

Gerald Yoesel
Olathe