July 28, 2011

When the Home Front Takes Away Your Home

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For years, FHA and VA mortgages have made homeownership possible for military vets. Those service members’ modest incomes often keep them from saving a large-enough down payment to secure a prime loan; the federal programs helped them find affordable financing that fit within their budgets.

Until the mortgage boom, that is. Private lenders managed to hawk subprime mortgages with ballooning payments under the FHA and VA umbrellas. Now, as more vets transition from the war zone to the home front, they’re finding that they can no longer afford their homes.

Which is why you should read “Home From War and Facing Eviction,” a riveting story of struggling vets and how the financial sector gamed the system to screw them. Written by Pulitzer winners Donald Barlett and James Steele, it comes via our partners at New American Media, and it’s damned important. If you don’t mind the pain of being rapped hard on your empathy bone, give it a look-see.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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