Affordable

The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan? Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, "HARP 2.0" — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

My neighbor's Honda was stolen from our street — twice. The second time it was recovered, its rear windshield had been blown out in a gang shooting. It was time for a change, a drastic one. So my neighbor bought a Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows, side spotlights and a metal plate on the trunk lid reading "Police Interceptor. " Now it sits, black and brutish, among the Camry Hybrids, Mini Coopers and Volvo station wagons in our Echo Park neighborhood. In September, the last of the iconic cop cars — a veteran of countless street chases, both actual and theatrical — rolled off Ford's production line in St. Thomas, Ontario.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

A newly streamlined government plan to reward homeowners who diligently pay their underwater mortgages is proving a bonanza for banks, which by one estimate may pocket $12 billion in extra revenue by refinancing loans. The revisions to the Obama administration's 3-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program have yielded mixed results for homeowners, analysts and mortgage professionals say. Some responsible homeowners are indeed getting lower-interest loans despite owing far more than their homes are worth.

In response to a full-page ad placed by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau in the Oct. 28 issue of the Travel section, we contacted several of the hotels whose rates were published. Without exception, all quoted rates in excess of the rates published in the ad. We have been wanting to take our grandson to Sea World but have now decided it is not affordable. We are advised that we should get out there and travel in order to stimulate the economy, but the consumer will not pay exorbitant rates to do so. Travel is an option, not a necessity.

I'm going to vote for the housing measure, Proposition 46, although there are serious problems with it. The fairest housing program would be a negative income tax giving the most money to the poorest. Instead, most of Proposition 46's benefits might go to the middle class, helping only a fraction of those who need help. The government should build the housing itself. It could create many jobs for the poor and unemployed, with job training and job sharing. Under Proposition 46, a number of already-rich homebuilders will wind up making millions because of inadequate competition and lack of opportunity for others to enter the industry.

Re "Looking for Cheap Digs? Try Palmdale," Commentary, May 21: Shirley Svorny writes that high home prices are not only inevitable, but desirable. Market forces apply and all that. Sure, people can and should pay more to live closer to their work. If that work pays a ton, then they can afford the high cost of living. Median home prices in Orange County are now over $400,000. Great for folks with nice paychecks. But where are these people going to eat? Who will fix their cars? Who will sell them espresso and cut their hair and clean their carpets?

Christine M. Diemer's Commentary, "Fighting O.C.'s Double Whammy Against Low-Cost Housing" (Sept. 22) certainly contributes to raising the awareness level of citizens of Orange County to the critical need of providing more low-income, affordable housing for the county. The private building housing sector, with the cooperation of government at all levels, can do much more. Ms. Diemer fails to mention the role of the nonprofit building and management sector. Here in Orange County, the Orange County Community Housing Corp.

As president of the Glendale Human Relations Council, I want to congratulate you on your Feb. 11 article about recent extreme local rent increases and their effect on senior citizens in Glendale. I have written to the owner of the apartment at 245 W. Lorraine St. in Glendale of our dismay about his actions and his refusal to meet with his tenants. Perhaps little can be done in the short run to alleviate hardships on seniors with fixed incomes because of a shortage of affordable housing.

Bank of America said Wednesday that it will lend at least $50 million a year to developers who build affordable housing for low-income families throughout California. The commitment by the San Francisco-based bank follows nearly a year of discussions with community organizations led by an ad hoc coalition called the California Reinvestment Committee. B of A will provide loans for construction, acquisition and intermediate-term financing to housing developers who will be selected by working with community organizations.

Los Angeles city government must cut its expenses with two distinct but related goals in mind: It must slash deeply to ensure that the coming year's budget is balanced and includes a responsible reserve fund; and it must restructure so that when fiscal times are better, City Hall is left not merely leaner but also more focused on core functions. The first goal could be accomplished through equal slashing across departments, but the second requires budgeters and policymakers to take a breath, think things through and recalculate as necessary.

Harold Hazelton can't imagine living on land. For more than 30 years, the 76-year-old and his wife, Donna, 75, have resided on their 43-foot Grand Mariner at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington. That soon will end, however. "I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "I don't like living on land. I've been on water all of my life. " The Hazeltons are among 95 tenants who face eviction May 1, the result of port officials having labeled the marina's dock and its 138 slips in Berth 204 as too dilapidated to be safe.

NEW ORLEANS — The Lakers' locker room was quiet Saturday night, but slight activity could be detected through a large window in the trainer's room. Kobe Bryant was on his back on a padded table, texting or surfing or doing something on his cellphone while smiling. He was in a business suit, the same one he wore while sitting on the bench in Phoenix, and he wore a walking boot to stabilize his sore left shin. Then he left without talking to reporters. The tenosynovitis that has taken root in Bryant's left leg doesn't seem like a long-term injury, but the Lakers can't afford for him to be out at all. The Clippers, allegedly left for dead last week, are only half a game behind them in the standings.

As doubts grow about the survival of the federal healthcare law, state officials are considering ways to keep key elements of the legislation alive in California. Skepticism of the Affordable Care Act by conservative Supreme Court justices during oral arguments last week has raised the possibility the court will strike the individual mandate to purchase health coverage or throw out the entire law as unconstitutional. Even if the whole law is scrapped nationally, many of its consumer protections, such as guaranteed coverage for children, are expected to survive in California.

One afternoon in 1934, Supreme Court Justice Harlan Fiske Stone decided to quietly help Labor Secretary Frances Perkins out of a jam. Her quandary was how to write a Social Security law that would survive scrutiny by the court's conservative bloc. Stone, a progressive, pulled her aside during a tea party at his home, glanced around to make sure he wasn't overheard, and whispered, "The taxing power of the federal government, my dear; the taxing power is sufficient for everything you want and need.

In today's world of 24-hour news and 15-second sound bites, every policymaker knows that managing the message is the key to winning over the public. So why has the messaging on behalf of one of the most dramatic public reforms of our lifetimes, the federal Affordable Care Act, been so incompetent? Provisions of the 2010 healthcare reform have already changed the lives of millions of Americans for the better. It has brought insurance coverage to more than 2.6 million previously uninsured young adults, cut prescription costs by a total of $3 billion for millions of seniors, eliminated co-pays on preventive services such as child immunizations and cancer screenings and eliminated annual and lifetime claims caps for more than 80 million policyholders.

This is in regard to your article Sept. 5 regarding Dr. Thomas Bulgin of All Cats Clinic in Ventura. For years not only have I taken my own cats to him but abandoned kittens and cats from the beach (a favorite dumping area). There they are bathed, neutered or spayed, given shots and new homes are found. He is the only vet in this area who makes being a multiple-cat owner affordable. No matter how many cats you bring in for a visit, you are charged for one cat. He has given me his home phone number for emergencies, a first for me. There is jealousy among several vets here because his volume is so much more than theirs.

On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council is likely to pass an ordinance preventing many landlords from raising rents for four months. This is a step in the wrong direction. Instead, the council should revoke the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance entirely. Rent control policies have laudable goals, especially in populous and undersupplied housing markets like Los Angeles'. However, the city's law, like all rent control, has failed to accomplish its objectives in the more than 30 years since it was passed.

Access to affordable cars proved a crucial leg-up for working families, even during the depths of the worst recession in decades, a new study has found. The survey of 445 recipients of loans offered from 2007 to 2010 by the nation's largest low-income car ownership program, Ways to Work, found that 82% were able to get off welfare and other public aid as a result. That led to an estimated savings to taxpayers of $18.2 million a year, more than double the amount donated to the group.

More than 9 million retired Americans don't have enough money to cover basic living expenses, a new study has found. Of the nearly 20 million older Americans who live alone or with a spouse, about 47% can't afford everyday necessities such as proper nutrition and medical care, according to the analysis by Wider Opportunities for Women, a nonprofit research firm in Washington. An additional 20 million seniors live with family members or in group settings such as nursing homes.