Stressed out? Here's a house.

According to a story in the Las Vegas Sun, the County, North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson have all gotten together to request $370 million in federal funds, for the purpose of populating abandoned and foreclosed houses in Las Vegas.

That's an astronomical sum, which I doubt we'll see in full. If the program takes off, the end sum will be significantly less than requested. Even so, some HUD money will probably be sent our way, and I'm wondering what this Frankenstein's Monster of local government is going to do with it.

President of the Nonprofit Organization, Nevada HAND, Mike Mullin is quoted as saying the challenge is, “how to get the money out on the street without doing something dumb or ineffective.” You read my mind, Mike. When I see an amalgam of government agencies with a large some of money, it makes me think of a very specific metaphor. Has a baby ever tried to feed you a cookie? Imagine a chubby, unwieldy hand inexpertly stabbing you in the face with a wet fiber knife. It may be operating on altruism, but it has no idea what its doing. And the bigger sum of money, the bigger the baby, and soggier the cookie.

I'm already getting a sense of this as the article finishes up, telling me that this will benefit more than just the housing market, as families in unstable living situations need more help with things like joblessness and stress, and getting these people situated in homes will drive down the need for other types of family services.

What?

The expert quoted for that little nugget of brilliance is the president of Nevada United Way. It makes me question whether or not he's ever owned anything ever. Owning and maintaining a house is a highly stressful venture, especially for a family who was in a "precarious housing situation" previously. Living in a house does not miraculously grant one a job, or any kind of steady income.

So, this sounds like a bad idea to me, what do you think? Am I too heartless to see the potential good that can come out of this project? Leave some comments and I'll respond tomorrow.