USDA’s Housing Mission Creep

A program created to house farmers in the 1940s has, through decades of bureaucratic drift, become a sizable federal rural housing lender for non‑farmers. The agency now backs no‑money‑down loans and large guarantees, creating a hidden housing finance channel that few outside policy circles notice. — Reveals how agency mission creep creates unexpected fiscal and regulatory exposures in housing policy and changes which actors (e.g., institutional investors) rely on federal backstops.