Editorial: It’s just a ‘situation’

Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 | 7:39 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons' failure to honestly address the mortgage crisis head-on is pitiful given that Nevada has the highest rate of foreclosures in the country.

Gibbons' plan to help homeowners at risk of losing their home falls far short of what other states are doing. Considering its number of foreclosures, Nevada should be a model for other states dealing with the crisis.

Unfortunately, Gibbons won't even acknowledge the magnitude of the crisis , which threatens millions of homeowners in the United States . No matter that the rash of foreclosures has sent rumblings through Wall Street and the nation's economy, the Gibbons administration calls it a "subprime lending situation."

This is more than a "situation." Many lenders allowed people with poor credit histories to buy houses with subprime loans. Those loans have low "teaser" rates that skyrocket after a certain time, typically two years, making the later mortgage payments unaffordable to many.

Gibbons' response has been to roll out a Web site with basic information on foreclosures, plan housing fairs to try to match borrowers with nonprofit agencies, propose that private lenders help get people out of subprime loans and hold more summit meetings to discuss the issue.

We wish he were joking. Although state governments are limited in what they can do, and Congress is reviewing what it can do, this is a feeble effort. Nevada could be doing so much more.

Ohio and California, for example, are aggressively trying to help homeowners.

The governor of Ohio convened a task force that came up with 27 recommendations. Officials there are using databases to find homeowners who might, whether they know it or not, be at risk of foreclosure and are reaching out to help them.

California has offered to help people who lost their homes in foreclosure to qualify for housing assistance and has added counseling services.

Nevada, meanwhile, is the epicenter of the crisis, and Gibbons' response to the "situation" reminds us of the old saying: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.