California distributes emergency grant to mortgage crisis hit workers

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on Wednesday the distribution of 73 million U.S. dollars for development projects aimed at helping laid-off mortgage and banking workers.

Touring an affordable housing project in Los Angeles, the governor said the grant will provide affordable housing for 1,611 families across the state.

Schwarzenegger said the federal government was providing millions more to provide job-training for workers displaced by the mortgage crisis.

He said the U.S. Department of Labor would allocate 5.6 million dollars as a National Emergency Grant to help displaced mortgage and banking industry workers transition to other jobs.

"We applied for this grant because we want to help displaced workers transition to new jobs, and the money will go to the counties with the greatest need," Schwarzenegger said.

"We are not just sitting by and waiting for the economy to pick back up. We are taking all the action we can to keep people working and rebuilding California," he said.

Schwarzenegger said more than 8,400 workers in the mortgage and banking industries have been laid off since July 2007.

"Many of these laid-off workers have skills that are transferable to jobs in high-growth, high-demand industries such as health care and biotech," Schwarzenegger said.

"We want to do whatever is possible to help them make this transition." he said.