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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\u00a0dramatically pushed up<\/a>\u00a0the cost of living in the post-pandemic years.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0affordable housing\u00a0financing<\/a>, boosting the Federal Financing Bank\u2019s financing of affordable housing and other measures.<\/p>\n The increased attention to home prices comes as the housing crunch becomes an increasing issue in this year\u2019s general election campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cWe face a very significant housing supply shortfall that has been building for a long time,\u201d Yellen says in remarks prepared for delivery Monday afternoon. \u201cThis supply crunch has led to an affordability crunch.\u201d<\/p>\n Yellen says the administration is \u201cpursuing a broad affordability agenda to address the price pressures that families have been feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Both homebuyers and renters are facing increasing housing costs that skyrocketed after the pandemic. According to the\u00a0Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index<\/a>, home prices increased by 46% between March 2020 and March 2024. A new Treasury analysis shows that over the past two decades, housing costs have been rising faster than incomes.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, sales of previously occupied U.S. homes\u00a0fell in May for the third straight month<\/a>\u00a0as rising mortgage rates and record-high prices discouraged many prospective homebuyers during what\u2019s traditionally the housing market\u2019s busiest period of the year.<\/p>\n For low-income Americans, statistics from the National Low Income Housing Coalition show that nationally there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for the more than 10.8 million extremely low-income U.S. families. And there is no state or county in the country where a renter working full-time at minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to the group.<\/p>\n It is becoming a crisis in some cities. For instance, on Martha\u2019s Vineyard in Massachusetts the cost of housing has become\u00a0a public safety issue<\/a>\u00a0as it becomes difficult to attract and retain correctional officers and 911 dispatchers.<\/p>\n President Biden and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump have put forward a variety of proposals on how to make life more affordable for average Americans, from Trump\u00a0proposing to make tips tax-free<\/a>\u00a0for workers and Biden pursuing a plan to cut student loan payments for borrowers. A representative from the Trump campaign did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.<\/p>\n But increased housing costs have some economists predicting the crunch may not end until the Federal Reserve lowers its key interest rate, which remains at 5.3%.<\/p>\n Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets Economic Research, wrote Friday that little change is expected in the housing market \u201cuntil the Fed reduces policy rates.\u201d<\/p>\n Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said the White House has made efforts to prevent evictions and address the housing crisis, \u201cbut there is much more work still to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Yentel said congressional action is needed to \u201cquickly enact transformative and badly needed housing investments. Only through a combination of administrative action and robust federal funding can the country truly resolve its affordable housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n In her speech, Yellen is to call on Congress to pass\u00a0Biden\u2019s proposed budget<\/a>, released in March.<\/p>\n The budget calls on Congress to provide a tax credit for first-time homebuyers and includes a plan to build more than 2 million homes. It would expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.<\/p>\n The Biden administration has taken other steps to boost the housing supply, including\u00a0launching a multi-agency effort<\/a>\u00a0to encourage states and cities to convert more empty office buildings into housing units, with billions of federal dollars available to help spur such transitions.<\/p>\n In July 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development provided communities with $85 million to reduce barriers to affordable housing, such as zoning restrictions that in some places have become a hurdle to increasing the supply and density of affordable housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to the Fortune Next to Lead newsletter to get weekly strategies on how to make it to the corner office. Sign up for free<\/a> before it launches on June 24, 2024.<\/div>\n