While health care, unemployment and the economy have received national attention, affordable housing remains an overlooked but crucial problem in Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony asserted Sept. 30 at the 15th annual Archdiocesan Public Policy Breakfast.

"We are all very aware of the current national efforts around health care, labor and the economy," he said. "However, right here in our own city there is a less visible but equally important struggle around access to decent affordable housing."

The cardinal pointed out how laborers - even union workers - who build the luxury condos that have transformed the L.A. urban landscape can't afford to rent apartments in the city to house their own families. And day laborers who work in construction often wind up spending the night in their cars or in shelters.

"The biggest obstacle to creating an adequate housing policy in the City of Los Angeles has been the remarkable capacity of our housing stock to create wealth for developers and land owners," he said. "Yet, the pope chastises those who think that 'a market economy has an inbuilt need for a quota of poverty and underdevelopment in order to function at its best.'

"On the contrary, the market is not merely an engine for wealth creation. It must also function as a means of pursuing justice through redistribution."

Although foreclosures are still on the rise, both locally and nationally, and it seems the housing situation is only getting worse, "We are not without hope," said Cardinal Mahony. He cited the Housing LA coalition and its proposal for a mixed-income housing ordinance as a reason to believe that out of the current housing crisis can actually come positive change.

He was attracted to the grass-roots organization's work because of the simple elegance of its core proposal - that those who are benefiting financially from the housing crisis share their wealth with those who have built the homes and high-rises, and worked the land. In addition, he admired the fact that Housing LA is a network of nonprofit and for-profit housing developers, policy advocates, faith-based groups and community organizations working on a single goal - to provide more affordable housing for Angelenos."

Unemployment running out
Alissa Anderson, deputy director of the California Budget Project, summarized the grim life-support condition of the state's economy as "a perfect storm." She said the unemployment rate reached an all-time high in July, with fewer than three out of five Californians holding down full-time jobs. In addition, 1.4 million people could only find part-time employment.

And there's no good news in the foreseeable future. Anderson reported that the state's high unemployment rate is expected to continue climbing all through next year, remaining in double digits at least in 2011. What this means, she said, is that many of those jobless are likely to run out of unemployment insurance benefits before they can find work.

Californians are also losing their homes at a record rate. The California Budget Project official noted that in 2008 there were 236,000 foreclosures across the state - an amazing 81 times as many only three years before.

"California's economic problem has also resulted in a budget crisis of unprecedented magnitude," she said. "The budget agreement this year closed a $60 billion gap between revenues and expenditures. Half of that gap was closed by cutting funding to vital public programs and services from education, health coverage for children and other social service programs.

"These cuts come at a time of growing need in California," she pointed out. "The economic crisis has increased the demand of public support systems at precisely the time when resources are at an all-time low."

For the past 28 months, individuals and families from Yreka to San Diego have lost their jobs and homes, seen major portions of their retirement benefits disappear and health care benefits cut or eliminated, reminded Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference. And by responding poorly to the budget meltdown, he said, the state's legislative leaders have "shredded" practically all social services that provided support to the working and out-of-work poor.

He noted that on June 11 Bishop Stephen Blaire, president of the California Catholic Conference, had stood on the steps of a Sacramento food bank to assess the dire situation. The bishop of Stockton (and former auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles) also spoke about what the response should be from a perspective of faith.

"The responsibility we share to look after one another, to care for the least of our sisters and brothers, doesn't shrink when government shrinks," Bishop Blaire remarked that day. "Many social service agencies, including Catholic Charities, are under enormous strain, but they will continue to work day and night to help needy families and individuals caught up in the painful effects of the financial crisis."

Dolejsi urged Catholic Christians to bring their faith perspective to bear on how they view the crisis and then how they act. "We've got a lot of things to do," he said. "We've got a difficult situation. We can assess it, as we're doing here today. We must then look with our eyes of faith, and we must find ways to respond."

Foreclosures still rising
The pastor of Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima brought the discussion back to Southern California's foreclosure crisis. Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father John Lasseigne noted that while many financial authorities are saying the economic crisis is nearing the end, the local housing situation continues to worsen.

He pointed out that to date banks have only offered troubled homebuyers modifications to lower interest rates - the principal on the loans stays the same. So five years from now, when many of the modifications have run their course, the state will be facing yet another housing crisis.

"On the other hand," the pastor said, "if we and bank customers unite and say to our banks, 'You are partly to blame for this crisis. You've already received billions of dollars from us taxpayers to stabilize your business. Join with us now in adopting the most sensible strategy to relieve our homeowners, a strategy that asks each of us (homeowners, taxpayers and you the bank) to bear some of the costs' - real change can happen."

That's exactly what 200 parishioners at Mary Immaculate Church and members of the community group One LA-IAF have done in a "Foreclosure Prevention Strategy" demonstration project.

The Los Angeles City Council, committing up to $1 million, has agreed to give these at-risk homeowners low interest loans averaging $40,000 when their bank agrees to forgive part of the principal by the same amount of the loan. According to the plan, the bank must agree to apply a fixed non-adjustable interest rate and to a mortgage payment that won't exceed 31 percent of the owner's income.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Council of Los Angeles, has also committed up to $1 million in matching funds to the City of Los Angeles' contribution.

"The one sticking point I'm sorry to say is not a single bank has stepped forward to agree to participate in One LA-IAF's demonstration project," Father Lasseigne reported.

"So I call on you, all of you who have bank accounts - all of you organizations with some financial clout, and a lot of moral clout because we are the church - to stand with us and show banks what is in their best interest and ours."