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84 84 84 INVESTMENT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY PRESERVATION EXAMINING THE GSES' APPROACH TO EQUITABLE HOUSING FINANCE PLANS e Urban Institute has released a report, "e GSEs' Equitable Housing Finance Plans: Strengths and Missed Opportunities," the inaugural Equitable Housing Finance Plans (EHFPs) released by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Report authors Janneke Ratcliffe, VP of Housing Finance Policy Center; Laurie Goodman, Institute Fellow for the Housing Finance Policy Center; and Michael Stegman, Nonresident Fellow for Housing Finance Policy Center examine the GSEs EHFPs, three- year plans outlining the actions the GSEs will undertake to promote sustainable homeownership and rental opportunities for traditionally underserved Black and Latino communities. In September of 2021, the FHFA directed the GSEs to submit three-year EHFPs, to be updated annually, charging them with setting goals and undertaking actions to address the barriers to sustainable homeownership opportunities to advance equity in the nation's housing finance system. e Urban Institute notes that each GSE takes a different approach to the EHFPs. Fannie Mae's plan seeks to dismantle barriers Black households face along three main stages of the housing journey, including, housing preparation (including credit building and financial education; shopping for, acquiring, renting, or buying a home using a mortgage; and achieving housing stability, or maintaining homeownership or rentership despite obstacles. Freddie Mac's approach includes broad interventions to "address systemic barriers to equitable housing"—including improving fairness in credit scoring, underwriting, appraisal bias, and reducing third-party costs. Freddie Mac's plan has a central role for special purpose credit programs (SPCPs), focusing on a more expansive definition of people of color. "Freddie Mac's plan is also substantively broader than Fannie Mae's, touching on housing finance for persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities, technical assistance on renovation financing, down payment assistance tools, and tenant protections, and acceptance of housing choice vouchers in Freddie Mac– financed rental housing," states the report. "Freddie Mac also hopes to develop disclosures "Both GSEs' strategies explicitly call out challenges disproportionately facing households and communities of color in renting and owning homes. This is important and long overdue."