Leaving
California to the Homeless
Donald
Trump visited enemy territory this week.
He came out here to the deep blue state of California to
raise a few million bucks at private fundraisers in Silicon Valley and Beverly
Hills.
He also went down to the border with Mexico to inspect the
wall the federal government is building to stop illegal immigration and protect
what no longer deserves to be called the Golden State.
What the president couldn't see while he was out here were
all the wealthy and productive Californians who are leaving this state in
droves.
They are the people who are tired of being tortured by high
state taxes and bad laws like the ones that prevent low-income housing from
being built, or that make their electricity and gasoline so expensive.
They are the people who've watched the sidewalks of their
great cities being turned into permanent tent communities for the poor, the
homeless, the drugged and the mentally disturbed.
They are the tax base that has been footing the bill for the
social welfare benefits and government services that are bestowed so generously
on state citizens and illegal immigrants.
They have seen the grim future of their formerly great state and
said to themselves, "We're outta' here."
But millions of Californians like me can't leave. We have
kids and grandkids here.
We love the state and its people. We love the weather, the
beaches, the deserts and the mountains.
What we don't love is what the Democrat Party and its
policies have been doing for decades to harm California and its big cities.
The
Democrats running this state almost act like they hate it. All they seem to
want is more illegal immigrants, more crippling environmental laws and higher
prices for everything.
The shocking TV images of huge homeless communities living in
tents in Los Angeles and San Francisco are the most glaring sign of the
Democrats' failure.
Even Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom agree that it has been
state policies like strict building laws and environmental regulations that
have created tens of thousands of homeless people.
Only let's please not call them "homeless people."
It's a misnomer.
Most of the thousands of people you see on TV living in tents
and sleeping bags are homeless by choice.
They're mostly drug addicts. Or mentally ill. Or bums or
vagrants who've chosen to live on the street amid their own garbage, used drug
needles and human waste.
They're also mostly males.
There are lots of genuinely homeless people in California who
need assistance from government or private social agencies.
But they're usually women and children and they're usually
living in shelters where they can get the help they need.
Shelters
have rules you have to follow and homeless mothers and their kids will abide by
them. Men won't.
We keep hearing that we need to build more low-income housing
units for the homeless.
But the truth is, most of the men on the sidewalks of
downtown L.A. wouldn't stay in a shelter if it was located in the penthouse of
the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.
Half of the country's unsheltered homeless people live in
California. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti wants President Trump to solve the state's
homeless crisis.
But it's the responsibility of the Democrat-controlled state
government, the Democrat governor and the Democrat mayors - the ones who
created the crisis in the first place.
For California natives like me, it's a crying shame.
The most beautiful state in the U.S. has been wrecked by
Democrats and it's only going to get worse as more illegal immigrants arrive
from Mexico and Central America.
I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before the state runs
out of money and the productive people who provide it. -
The suit accuses the bank of steering minority borrowers
toward high-cost, risky loans
By EMILY
DERUY | ederuy@bayareanewsgroup.com |
Bay Area News Group
California’s
top cop is wading into a lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank
engaged in predatory mortgage lending.
Attorney
General Xavier Becerra on Thursday announced he had filed an amicus brief in
support of Oakland’s suit against the company, which accuses Wells Fargo of
steering minority borrowers toward higher-risk, higher-cost loans than white
borrowers.
“Equal
access to housing starts with equal and fair access to our financial
institutions,” Becerra said in a statement. “For many African-Americans and
Latinos, the hardships of the mortgage crisis haven’t stopped. Our fight for
economic justice continues and I’m proud to stand with the city of Oakland in
this effort to combat predatory lending in our state.”
The
case is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where Wells
Fargo wants a judge to dismiss the suit. The bank says it has been a fair
lender and does not discriminate.
Originally
filed by Oakland in 2015, the suit alleges that Wells Fargo violated the
federal Fair Housing Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and
hurt the city by directing minority borrowers toward risky loans and refusing
to allow many of them to refinance. Black and Latino borrowers, the suit says,
were more than twice as likely to receive a bad loan than similar customers.
Such practices, Oakland argued, hurt property values in minority communities,
limited property tax revenue and raised the costs of providing city services.
“Wells
Fargo’s racially discriminatory mortgage lending practices against
African-Americans and Hispanics have devastated individuals, families, and
communities in Oakland, throughout California, and across the country where
Wells Fargo operates, dramatically increasing foreclosures and decreasing the
Black and Latino middle class,” Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said in a
statement.
“Evidence
shows that Wells Fargo systematically provided more expensive and higher risk
loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers in Oakland and other cities
who qualified for the more favorable loans that the bank offered to white
borrowers,” Parker continued. “We applaud Attorney General Becerra for standing
with Oakland to hold Wells Fargo accountable and stop these racially
discriminatory practices.”
In
the amicus brief, Becerra argued that the bank’s practices leave minority
communities particularly vulnerable to foreclosures, which can have
reverberating effects, from increased homelessness and a decline in physical
and mental health for stressed borrowers to the deterioration of schools.
The
bank has denied the accusations.
“We
continue to disagree with the city’s accusations in this appeal and we are
prepared to present strong arguments in support of our long history of fair and
responsible lending in Oakland and across the country,” company spokesman Ruben
Pulido said in an email on Thursday.
“Wells
Fargo has been a part the Oakland community for more than 140 years and will
continue our longstanding efforts to work with customers, credit counselors,
nonprofit organizations and government agencies to expand homeownership and
revitalize distressed neighborhoods. We will continue to focus on helping
customers succeed financially and expanding homeownership in California and
throughout the United States.”
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