Housing Aid

The White House on Wednesday said it would spend an additional $3 billion to help distressed homeowners in the states with the highest jobless rates to pay their mortgages. The latest round of funding pushes the total federal commitment up to $4.1 billion. The government already runs two other programs to help homeowners modify existing mortgages or make their monthly payments. The White House is authorized to spend up to $50 billion to help homeowners under the Troubled Asset Relief Program originally created by the Bush administration to bail out Wall Street.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's inspector general testified on Capitol Hill on Thursday that a top national security official refused to cooperate with his investigation into the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation and whether there were any links to the White House. Michael E. Horowitz, whose 471-page report released Wednesday outlined a series of systemic problems at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told a House oversight committee that then-White House national security assistant Kevin O'Reilly had refused to voluntarily submit to an interview.

Re "Landlord Defections From Aid Plan Feared," Nov. 9: When a family of four with an annual income of $32,000 qualifies for public-assisted aid in housing, it is certainly time for changes to be made. If this family was qualified for housing assistance, do they also qualify for any other sort of public aid, like utility discounts, WIC, food stamps, etc.? It is no wonder that such a clamor is being made for welfare reform. Some has been done, but obviously there is more to do. Hopefully, our elected members of Congress are taking heed of this sort of abuse and will continue the reform measures.

For months, the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale have been the focus of complaints and a civil rights lawsuit alleging that city officials and city housing investigators harass minority residents on public housing assistance in an effort to drive them out. Now officials in Lancaster have turned the tables, filing a housing discrimination complaint against the Los Angeles County Housing Authority saying that it is the county, which oversees the Section...

The government will extend housing aid through August for Gulf Coast residents still displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, officials said, acknowledging that wide swaths of New Orleans and parts of coastal Mississippi remain uninhabitable. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would continue to pay for trailers, mobile homes and apartments occupied by 130,000 families, aid that would have expired at the end of next month.

Under a court order, the Bush administration will restart a housing program for Hurricane Katrina victims this week and begin explaining to thousands of evacuees why their aid was cut off. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled last month that the Federal Emergency Management Agency violated the Constitution when it eliminated short-term housing assistance and provided victims only confusing, computer-generated codes to explain its decision.

It's not surprising that one of the first federal programs on the chopping block this year is Section 8, the rental assistance program. Its recipients, some of the nation's most socially disenfranchised people, have little lobbying clout in Washington. Created as a Depression-era safety net in 1937 and expanded by the first Bush administration in 1990, the nation's primary effort to help the poor find and pay for housing serves nearly 2 million families nationwide.

In response to "Feinstein: The Democratic Candidate Appeals to Young Californians Who Want to Own Homes," Sept. 14: As the Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), I am compelled to correct an inaccurate statement made by gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein. Referencing the $600-million affordable housing bond funds approved by voters in 1988 and 1990, Feinstein stated that 90% of the money has not been spent. That is false. To date, $177 million, or 29.5%, has been committed.

Last-minute legislation approved by Congress will allow amnesty recipients to continue receiving housing benefits, a move applauded Wednesday by local officials who had feared that redevelopment projects would be jeopardized. The Immigration and Naturalization Service had proposed barring amnesty recipients from receiving benefits from about 40 health, education and welfare programs for five years, including Section 8 housing aid from the U.

The city of Oxnard's Housing Authority Commission unanimously approved a program to make families of military personnel deployed in the Persian Gulf eligible for federally subsidized housing. The program, which is subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, would give priority to dependents of U.S. troops who supported the Gulf War, over other families applying for subsidies.

As welfare rolls grow, Los Angeles County officials are considering limits on how long some of the area's most destitute residents can receive cash aid. Supervisor Don Knabe is pushing a proposal to replace monthly general-relief grants with housing assistance for recipients who don't try to find jobs or apply for disability benefits within a set time period. The goal, he said, would be to drop from the rolls people who are "just riding the system" so that funds are available to help those genuinely in need.

Adopting tactics condemned by President Obama, two former White House aides launched a pair of independent groups Friday to defend him and fight the array of conservative efforts that poured money into last year's election. The move by former White House Press Secretary Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, who served as a top aide to former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, confirmed the sharp reversal by Democrats on the use of undisclosed political spending. Burton and Sweeney said they were moved to create their own outside groups to fend off conservatives such as the Koch brothers and American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, independent groups co-founded by Karl Rove.

Which way in Iraq? Re "Losing Iraq," Opinion, Feb. 13 Max Boot is right. Iraq has disappeared from our public discourse, and this is dangerous, but not for the reasons Boot espouses. By putting the invasion and occupation of Iraq on the back burner of our national attention, we risk repeating this military, economic and diplomatic disaster. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11; George W. Bush has publicly admitted this fact. Hussein had no relationship with Al Qaeda, viewing it as a threat to his power base.

The Obama administration's shifting response to the crisis in Egypt reflects a sharp debate over how and when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should leave office, a policy decision that could have long-term implications for America's image in the Middle East. After sending mixed signals, the administration has appeared to settle on supporting a measured transition for easing Mubarak out of power. That strategy, which remains the subject of vigorous debate inside the administration, calls for a Mubarak crony, Vice President Omar Suleiman, to lead the reform process.

President Obama and congressional leaders called their first meeting since the midterm elections a frank but productive initial discussion of the issues before them, each expressing hope that common ground could be reached on the thorniest debate: the fate of tax rates set to expire next month. To that end, Obama announced that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Jack Lew, his budget director, would immediately begin working with representatives from both parties in Congress in an attempt to broker a compromise on the matter by year's end. Speaking to reporters after the meeting Tuesday, Obama said there was "broad agreement" that they need to resolve the tax-cut issue before the rates expire, but he outlined the differences and stopped short of saying he was confident they would do so. He said he was hopeful Geithner and Lew could "break through the logjam.

The White House on Wednesday said it would spend an additional $3 billion to help distressed homeowners in the states with the highest jobless rates to pay their mortgages. The latest round of funding pushes the total federal commitment up to $4.1 billion. The government already runs two other programs to help homeowners modify existing mortgages or make their monthly payments. The White House is authorized to spend up to $50 billion to help homeowners under the Troubled Asset Relief Program originally created by the Bush administration to bail out Wall Street.

Federal officials said Tuesday that they will open a center in Oxnard for farm workers hurt by last winter's crop freeze to apply for housing aid. The center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Center for Employment Training at 718 S. A St., officials said. Meanwhile, a center originally set up at the Ventura County fairgrounds was scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Banks could get incentive payments for allowing borrowers to sell their homes at a loss rather than go through foreclosure under new guidelines issued Thursday for the Obama administration's $75-billion housing plan. The program, known as Making Home Affordable, focuses on paying lenders to modify distressed borrowers' loans so that payments are cheaper. But under this expansion of the program, lenders can also receive incentive payments if the homeowner's loan is not modified.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was the target of an alleged extortion attempt by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Tribune has learned. The federal indictment issued Thursday includes a charge that Blagojevich tried to shake down "Congressman A" for campaign cash. A White House aide confirmed that it was Emanuel, who was then representing Chicago's North Side. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity.