Portland, Oregon is benefiting from stimulus money. The goal? Put people back into foreclosed homes.

If you meet the income guidelines, the government might have a house deal for you. You may be eligible for a $50,000 interest-free loan to help move into a foreclosed home.

The program, adopted by Congress last year, is aimed at preventing foreclosed houses from standing empty, bringing down neighborhood livability and property values.

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Portland, Multnomah County and Gresham are working together to spend $3.2 million in the county. The state received $19.6 million overall for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and distributed it based on foreclosure rates, the number of high-risk loans and unemployment. Clackamas County will receive $1.9 million and Washington County will get $1.7 million.

It’s a worthy goal. Unoccupied houses are a blight on neighborhoods, and they’re expensive to maintain or demolish. And empty houses are unacceptable at a time when more and more American families are facing homelessness.

Of course, the thought immediately occurs to me: Why aren’t we stopping the foreclosures in the first place? It’s all well and good to get these homes occupied again, but can’t we stop the process before it starts? Foreclosure rates are still going up in this country, and, though the stimulus bill did contain measures to combat this, one has to wonder if the actions were robust enough.