Two organizations synonymous with the 2008 financial crisis could play vital roles in helping America’s most vulnerable residents get off the streets.
ThinkProgress reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — two government-backed mortgage companies whose buying and guaranteeing of risky mortgages contributed to the Great Recession — are now able to contribute to the National Housing Trust Fund.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s ability to support the fund will be like “turning on the spigot,” Rachael Myers, executive director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, told ThinkProgress. And while it’s a far cry from an end-all, be-all answer to homelessness, the fund marks a shift in the federal government’s prioritizing of affordable housing.
“It does feel like the first step in moving the debate and moving the national government back into the business of creating affordable homes for extremely low-income people,” Myers told ThinkProgress.
