Treasury announces new plan to boost affordable housing supply

June 24 (UPI) -- The Treasury Department announced on Monday that it will give $100 million over the next three years to invest in a new program focused on increasing the supply to help build more affordable housing around the country.

The new program with the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund would support the financing of thousands of affordable housing units.

"This program dramatically reduces costs for housing finance agencies by allowing them to borrow funds at just about the rate at which the U.S. government borrows," the Treasury Department said in a statement. "This extension is expected to create a preserve of approximately 38,000 additional rental homes over the next 10 years alone."

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to say at an event in Minneapolis on Monday that lowering the cost of housing is part of the Biden administration's overall strategy to lessen the cost of living across the board.

"Inflation is down almost two-thirds from it speak," Yellen said in prepared remarks. "President Biden and I know that prices are key household expenses like healthcare, energy, and housing are still too high, in large part due to challenges that have been mounting over decades.

"Making life more affordable is the president's top economic priority and we are pursuing a broad affordability agenda to address the price pressures that families have been feeling."

Yellen will be asking 11 Federal Home Loan Banks to increase their support for housing programs by voluntarily doubling their 10% required commitment of their net income to 20% with a focus on new construction.

"If this level of commitment had been in place over the past five years, the FHLBs would have contributed nearly $2 billion more to housing programs than was required by law," the Treasury Department said.