The New York Times Editorial Board
(Editor’s note: Posting opinion pieces does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rose Law Group.)
Representative Melvin Watt, a Democrat of North Carolina, who was confirmed earlier this month as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will need to use all of his agency’s powers to cope with a worsening affordable housing crisis that is placing poor and elderly Americans at risk of homelessness and forcing many of the nation’s 43 million renters to skimp on food and medical care to meet the rent.
One thing he can do right away is to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage companies that the agency oversees, to pay into the National Housing Trust Fund, which was created by Congress in 2008 but was never financed because the two companies were brought low by the mortgage crisis.
Related: Phoenix Becomes First City To End Chronic Homelessness Among Veterans
