Treasury Secretary Speaks on Administration’s Housing Actions

As previewed by the Treasury Department, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen visited Minnesota and met local government and business leaders, held separate roundtables with Senators Smith (D) and Klobuchar (D) focused on public housing and CDFIs respectively, and provided remarks on “new efforts to increase the supply of housing and lower costs.” In these remarks which covered both past and future actions, Secretary Yellen previewed new Treasury Department efforts to expand housing supply which include the following actions:

• A new Treasury program administered by the CDFI Fund to provide an additional $100 million over the next three years to support the financing of affordable housing;
• An effort to provide interest rate predictability to state and local housing finance agencies borrowing from the Federal Financing Bank to support new housing development;
• A call to action for the Federal Home Loan Banks to increase their spending on housing programs;
• A new “How-To Guide” to support state and local governments using recovery funds provided by Treasury to construct housing; and
• An update to the Capital Magnet Fund to provide greater flexibility to CDFIs and non-profits that finance affordable housing.