Today's Los Angeles Daily News has a story about the rate of housing foreclosures in the San Fernando Valley. And the figure quoted is really quite horrifying. In August alone the foreclosure rate rose 400%. That's right. 400%. The number is mind blowing.  According to the Daily News, 289 homes were foreclosed on in August. In comparison to 58 that were foreclosed last August. The AP published an article this morning positing that a housing slump might produce a recession.

Daniel Blake, at the Economic Research Center at California State University, Northridge sees this trend happening as a result of the large numbers of adjustable rate mortgages that are adjusting to higher rates.

“It's climbing right now, and I don't see any reason for it to drop off that pace,” he said. “These mortgages are continuing to (reset at higher rates), and they will continue to (do so) for the next 12 to 19 months at a pretty steady pace.”

The article notes that there have been 552 foreclosures in the first two months of the third quarter. And expects that the third quarter will have more foreclosures than the second quarter, which closed with 632 foreclosures. And there's this from the AP article:

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that construction of new homes fell by 2.6 percent in August to the slowest pace in 12 years as troubles. On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its index of builder confidence fell in September to equal the lowest level on record.

Things really are only going to get worse. Here's hoping that Congress takes a hard look at this before it's too late.

We all know mental health care in California has always been a pretty important issue. And in November 2004 California voters passed Proposition 63 in an attempt to take care of some of the mental health care shortages that were occurring throughout the state. The proposition was brought forth by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg in an attempt to rectify almost 40 years of inadequate mental health care across California.
This editorial from the September 27, 2004 San Francisco Gate gives a pretty good background as to the reasons why Prop 63 was needed.
The California Department of mental Health has a website detailing the planned implementation of the program.

The Los Angeles Times is taking a look at how the program is working. Yesterday’s paper had New funds, enduring ills, and today’s Rural areas reap little from Prop. 63.
And the results seem, currently, to be a mixed blessing.

The L.A. Times says that Prop 63 will generate $1.5 billion this fiscal year.
Prop 63 pays for new, premium programs. It was specifically prohibited from backfilling budget shortfalls in already existing programs.
The programs that it is funding appear to be doing very well. And show progress for the people they are helping.

The Southern California housing market is an interesting study in contradictions. Most of the area is suffering from declines in housing sales. And, according to an article in this morning's Los Angeles Times,  things are only going to get worse.  Why do I say the market is a contradiction you ask? According to the article, in August, there was a 36.3% drop in home sales in the 6 counties mentioned in the article. Despite that, the median home price rose 2.7%.

There’s more

The housing data for 6 counties are examined in the article.
In San Diego County the median price fell 4% to $475,000 and sales fell 19.4%.
In Ventura County the median price fell 4.2% to $575,000 while sales fell 31.2%.
In Riverside County the median price fell 6.1% to $394,523 and sales dropped 46.4%.
In San Bernardino County, the median price fell 1.6% to $360,000 while sales fell by 47.2%.

In Los Angeles County, on the other hand, the median price rose nearly 6% to $550,000, despite sales drops of over 30%.
And in Orange County, prices rose nearly 2% to $642,250, also with a drop in sales of over 30%.

According to a recently published study UCLA study,
California’s economy is in for another tough year. But isn’t facing a recession. Yet.

The study specifically mentions that barring a housing crisis, the State should avoid a recession.

With adjustable-rate mortgages scheduled to adjust to higher rates next year, there is a very real possibility that home sales will continue to decline in the region.

King-Harbor Medical Center in South Central Los Angeles is back in the news this week. As you may remember, King-Harbor’s, formerly known as King Drew Medical Center, funding was pulled at the end of June, when the hospital failed it’s final review.

King-Harbor had been under scrutiny for quite a long time for sub standard care, but it was the reporting of the death of Edith Isabel Rodriguez at the hospital that appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back with regards to the survival of the Medical center. The Los Angeles Times documented the travails of King harbor in a Pulitzer winning series of articles.

This past Saturday a community meeting was held at the hospital to discuss the possible fate of the hospital. The meeting had been called for by Rep. Laura Richardson and Rep. Maxine Waters. Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors member Yvonne B. Burke made some interesting comments, including a statement that the Board of Supervisors might have kept the hospital open, despite the loss of funding had it not been for the revelation of death of Ms. Rodriguez. Along with another incident, which she refused to elaborate upon.

She told the crowd of hospital supporters that there had been an array people doing their best to make sure the hospital closed.

“It was almost like it was a conspiracy,” Burke said.

Burke told the crowd that in October the County would would try to find a private entity to run the hospital, who would then turn around and petition the County to run the facility.

King-Harbor served over 40,000 patients annually in South-Central Los Angeles every year. The majority poor and uninsured. And, unfortunately, many of those residents are currently facing a situation where they will be receiving no health care at all. Hopefully there is some truth in the story about the reopening of the hospital.

(I’d like to welcome our newest frontpager, shayera. She’ll add a lot to the discussion as an LA area blogger. Thanks Shayera! – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

With the Senate session starting to wind down, California legislators have been debating a huge number of bills to send up to the Governor.

The LA Times highlights just a few of them. And I thought I’d pass them on to you.

Senate gets heated passing gun bill

The bill that seems to have generated the most discussion was Assemblyman Mike Feuer’s (D-Los Angeles), which require semiautomatic handguns to be equipped with technology that would stamp the bullets fired from the weapon. The measure passed on a 21-17 vote. It was introduced in the Senate by Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) and will now go back to the Assembly.

Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Alameda) introduced a bill that would require prison officials to allow agencies to distribute condoms and dental dams to prison inmates. The bill was passed on a 21 to 18 vote. Republican legislators argued that the bill “sanctioned prohibited behavior.”

Parents take note. Assemblyman Gene Mullin (D-San Mateo), had a bill passed which mandates that children up to 8 years old must use child safety seats when riding in motor vehicles. The current law requires use up to 6 years of age.

Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation that would allow anyone involved in a marriage or domestic partnership to change his or her surname, regardless of gender.

A total of 100 bills were in discussion yesterday.

In National news, it seems Congresswoman Mary Bono has gotten engaged to a fellow Congressmember Rep. Connie Mack, R-FL. AP