Too bad you lost your house. Here’s some money to help the next guy.

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This won’t help the people losing their homes, but it might help other people buy them.

The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles is proposing purchasing foreclosed houses in Boyle Heights and then selling them to first-time buyers. The new buyers could receive a $75,000 second mortgage from the CRA to help them get into the home, which they wouldn’t have to pay back for 45 years (or presumably when they sell the house).

This is a classic way of helping people get into homes they couldn’t otherwise afford. But wait! Isn’t that what got us into trouble in the first place?

--Sharon Bernstein