U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew recently announced a new effort to help increase access to affordable rental options for low- and moderate-income individuals and families. More specifically, the announcement unveiled a new financing partnership between the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) aimed at supporting the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) multifamily mortgage risk-sharing program. This new Treasury-HUD partnership will enable the Federal Financing Bank (FFB) to use its authority to finance FHA-insured mortgages that support the construction and preservation of rental housing. The FFB is authorized to fund any obligation that is fully guaranteed by another Federal agency. Treasury expects the program to provide between $500 million and $1 billion in annual funding for rental housing projects, compared to the roughly $363 million that housing finance agencies received from FHA last year.
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