Staffing cuts at the Federal Housing Administration could imperil affordable housing projects and mortgage programs for new homeowners.
A recommendation by the Trump administration to cut 40 percent of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, which contains the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), could have significant impacts on mortgage insurance for potential homebuyers, reports Kriston Capps in Bloomberg CityLab.
“The FHA provides mortgage insurance for single-family homes as well as apartment buildings, hospitals, nursing homes and other properties. In FY 2024 alone, the FHA insured more than 498,000 first-time homebuyers, many of whom would not be able to afford their mortgages otherwise,” Capps writes. Capps also notes that the FHA is a profit center for the government, explaining that “FHA-insured loans subsidize the federal budget, not the other way around.”
Firing close to half of the staff at the agency could derail its ability to underwrite loans. “This is a potentially acute problem for projects that are difficult to close and require more hands-on personnel, such as rural hospitals or affordable housing developments.”
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