ziasudra

President Obama.

That guy can inspire hope like no one else. Just scanning through my flist alone is making me feel all squeeful and emotional, seeing all of you post such inspirational entries about your thoughts and excitements and hopes and apprehensions for the next four years to come. Today is a day to celebrate. Tomorrow, it'll be the first day in a long string of days to get to work.

The realist in me is already fearing the onset of disappointment -- disappointment due to unrealistic expectations such as Client A who truly believes Obama's stimulus plan will give him instant money so he can save his home from foreclosure. Or Client B who keeps on insisting "Obama will make it better" as if the new president is the panacea to his personal finance mismanagement.

But I do hope in (realistic?) hope. If Obama stays true to his words and will cut out government programs that don't work while giving more money to those that do, then I'm hopeful that programs like the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Funds will be utilized and receive more support for the effective work that they are already doing. As for the current housing crisis, I cannot be more pleased that the (now former) NYC Housing and Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan is now the Secretary of HUD. We -- collective we, referring to my and other housing/community development organizations in NYC -- have worked with him and the common verdict I've heard over and over is that he knows his stuff. After all, one didn't serve in NYC with the task to tackle the city's affordable housing problem without possessing the required "chops." If Donovan's tenure at HPD left him with only five foreclosures among 17,000 of new homeowners, then I am hopeful that this Foreclosure Crisis will have an ending at some point, with some possible solutions shining down on the other side of the tunnel.

We did help a senior client solve his subprime predatory lending-induced delinquency recently. We helped him apply for reverse mortgage so he didn't have to lose his home. That felt really good.

If you live in the U.S., are eligible to vote and haven't done so yet...

GO VOTE!

heidi8 has a great post about making sure you can vote, and what to do if you find out at the polling place that you can't. It's worth reading it before heading to the polling station. Pass the info along!

And I'm off to work, where I'll have a browser just for election updates open permanently on my computer...


ETA: If you're a resident of Virginia and for whatever reason don't have valid ID, remember that, unless you're a first-time voter, you have the right to sign, under oath, an Affirmation of Identity so that you can vote. More info here.
(Thanks Iulia linnea for the info!)

ETA 2: And if you're a New York voter and they can't find your name on the rolls, there's a supplement book that they should check. It contains 50,000-80,000 names not on the main rolls, according to NYPIRG.