We get this from a recent AP story on a joint press release from earlier today:
The Obama administration is unveiling a new program to provide support to state and local housing agencies to provide help to thousands of home buyers and renters.
The administration said the new program would help to support low mortgage rates and expand resources for low and middle income borrowers who want to buy or rent a home.
The program will feature two parts — a new bond purchase program to support new lending by housing finance agencies and a temporary credit and liquidity program to improve access by housing agencies to credit sources for their existing bonds.
…
The local and state housing finance agencies, which provide loans to people with low or moderate incomes, have had a hard time raising money to fund loans due to the housing crisis and credit crunch.
“This initiative is critical to helping working families maintain access to affordable rental housing and homeownership in tough economic times,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “Through this initiative, the administration aims to help (the housing finance agencies) jump-start new lending to borrowers who might not otherwise be served and to better support the financing costs of their current programs — key components in stabilizing the housing market overall.”
