White House Announces Steps to Increase Affordable Housing Supply

On September 1, the White House announced policies to increase the supply of affordable housing.

According to the plan, the Biden Administration has set a goal of creating, preserving, and selling to homeowners and non-profits nearly 100,000 additional affordable homes for homeowners and renters over the next three years. Specifically, President Biden directed federal agencies to:

• Boost the supply of quality, affordable rental units by relaunching the partnership between the Department of Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Risk Sharing Program in order to enable eligible state housing finance agencies (HFAs) to provide low-cost capital for affordable housing development; raising Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s (the Enterprises) equity cap for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the largest federal program for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing; and making more funding available to Community Development Finance Institutions and non-profit housing groups for affordable housing production under the Capital Magnet Fund.
• Boost the supply of manufactured housing and 2-4 unit properties by expanding financing through Freddie Mac. Along with Fannie Mae’s and the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) existing policies, these steps will enable more Americans to purchase homes, and increase the availability of rental units throughout the country.
• Make more single-family homes available to individuals, families, and non-profit organizations – rather than large investors – by prioritizing homeownership and limiting the sale to large investors of certain FHA-insured and HUD-owned properties, in addition to expanding and creating exclusivity periods in which only governmental entities, owner occupants, and qualified non-profit organizations are able to bid on certain FHA-insured and government-owned properties.
• Work with state and local governments to boost housing supply by leveraging existing federal funds to spur local action, exploring federal levers to help states and local governments reduce exclusionary zoning, and launching learning and listening sessions with local leaders.