Yellen announces efforts to boost housing supply as high prices create crunch

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is announcing new steps to increase access to affordable housing as still-high prices on groceries and other necessities and high interest rates have dramatically pushed up the cost of living in the post-pandemic years.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will promote the new investments on Monday during a visit to Minneapolis. They include providing $100 million through a new fund over the next three years to support affordable housing financing, boosting the Federal Financing Bank’s financing of affordable housing and other measures.

“We face a very significant housing supply shortfall that has been building for a long time,” Yellen says in remarks prepared for delivery Monday afternoon. “This supply crunch has led to an affordability crunch.”