On July 31, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo met with the leadership of the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs) and Sandra Thompson, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to discuss measures for enhancing affordable housing development.
During the meeting, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo emphasized the need for FHLBs to allocate more resources towards expanding housing supply in line with their public mission. Specifically, he urged FHLBs to invest at least 20% of their net income in affordable housing initiatives and utilize a portion of their unrestricted retained earnings to create a capital pool aimed at reducing new housing production costs nationwide.
“Lowering costs for the American people is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration,” stated Adeyemo. The recent meeting follows months of engagement by Treasury staff with FHLB leaders on housing supply and affordability issues. It also comes after Secretary Janet L. Yellen’s visit to Minneapolis, where she detailed Treasury’s efforts to address housing affordability across the country and called on FHLBs to increase their support for housing programs.
