Housing Aid Fuels Fairness Concerns

Here’s the deal. Move here illegally. Move into an apartment with 14 to 19 other people. Destroy the property. (Fourteen to 19 people in a two-bedroom apartment tend to do that.) Create a complex of crime, decay and drugs. Then we will reward you with $20,000 to buy a new home (“Moving Out Means a Big Move Up,” March 10).

My husband and I couldn’t buy a home in our wildest dreams. Every penny we save goes to spiraling taxes, medical bills, rent, groceries. We don’t have a van pull up to our home and fix our teeth for free. No one pays our doctor bills but us; no taxes pay our bills.

Our wages continue to decline--and why not--when you can hire illegal immigrants for less. Corporations, agribusiness and local businessmen have millions in taxpayer money to subsidize their workers’ needs. Why pay for insurance when Medi-Cal will pay? Now we’re buying them houses!

I’m sick of it. We all are. When do we get a break instead of picking up the tab for others? When do we get a house of our own?

APRIL O’HARA

Anaheim

After reading about relocating tenants during renovations on the apartment complex in Orange, I do feel that the tenants should be given some kind of compensation in addition to 30 days’ notice. For many people that would make them homeless. After all, that is why they stay in those substandard buildings in the first place: They can’t afford to move. A total of $4,000 would probably cover a month’s rent, security deposit, a moving truck and any incidental expenses that come up. I’m curious why many of these people are receiving enough to actually purchase a home. There are many deserving people who would like to become more rooted in the community, but they don’t qualify for a windfall. How about single parents? How about people laid off after years of hard work? Most of us out here are hard-working people that save and try to get the American dream and can’t quite achieve it.

JACQUELINE McCLURE

Irvine

It is very upsetting to think that illegal immigrants are getting homes with as much as $37,000 for a down payment. Who on earth is going to pay for the mortgages and taxes on these homes [if] they are not making the money to do so? Welfare?

My husband was refused disability and is 68 years old and was born in this country. Is it a wonder that I’m fuming?

Even [Orange] Mayor Joanne Coontz said we shouldn’t be doing this. I’m in awe how things like this can happen.

BETTY BERARDINO

Orange