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Cost: $1 million

What it's for: Assistance for homebuyers and homeowners threatened with foreclosure, specialized housing and housing rehabilitation.

Pros: The relative cost is tiny in light of the potential impact.

Cons: It's hard to find any, though one might question why some of these programs aren't part of the city's annual operating budget.

Out take: The least-costly package among all the city bonds would provide ground-level support for those hoping to own homes and those struggling to keep the homes they already own.

The bonds would help fund the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing. They would repair substandard housing and provide counseling to prospective new homeowners.

They also would aid residents facing foreclosure in the wake of the national mortgage crisis. Foreclosures not only are devastating to individual homeowners, but can threaten the stability of whole neighborhoods.

Relatively speaking, the mortgage crisis has spared much of North Carolina. Still, Guilford County has seen 3,061 foreclosure starts in 2008, a 23 percent increase over last year.

On the front end, the city would partner with established agencies such as the Guilford County Home Ownership Center to help families budget for new homes and set up savings plans. For those already facing foreclosure, it would help fund agencies that work with families to negotiate with lenders. In the case of people who lose their homes, the city would partner with nonprofits such as the Greensboro Housing Coalition to provide emergency assistance.

The bonds also would help fund specialized housing for the elderly and the disabled as well as entry-level housing for low-wage workers.

How to do all of this with just $1 million? Since 1990, every $1 the city has spent toward housing has attracted another $4.50 in federal, state and private investment.

In a city whose strength is its neighborhoods, these bonds would cast a laser focus on a critical need.