I am assuming that most of the list has no idea what The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, or CFDA is, and how to use it. Here is the intro:
``The online Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance gives you access to a database of all Federal programs available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally -recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals...''
http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.FIND_ASSISTANCE_PROGRAM_DYN.show
When you search under `housing' you get a list of abstracts that look like this:
`` Abstract: 14.871 Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers FEDERAL AGENCY: PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORIZATION: Housing Act of 1937, Section 8(o), as amended, 42 U.S.C. 1437(o); Department of Housing and Urban Development Act, Section 7(d), 42 U.S.C. 3535(d); Housing and Urban-Rural Recovery Act of 1983, Public Law 98-181; Housing and Community Development Act of 1987, Part 3, Public Law 100-242; National Affordable Housing Act of 1990, Public Law 101-625; Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550; Housing Opportunity Program Extension Act of 1996, Public Law 104-120; Departments of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1998, Public Law 105-65; Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, Public Law 105-276; Preserving Affordable Housing for Senior Citizens and Families into the 21st Century Act of 1999, Public Law 106-74; Departments of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development; Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000, and Violence Against Women and Justice Department Reauthorization Act of 2005, Public Law 109-162.''
By going over these abstracts you can see that 14.871 probably started out as part of Roosevelt's housing program from 1937. If you look carefully at the dates of the amendments and sections, you will notice these correspond to provisions that modified FDR's original system---the ones made in the 1990s Clinton era and then after 2000 the Bush era. These will probably correspond to provision that attempt to privatize some programs.
Look at this (a section from an abstract not show):
``Preserving Affordable Housing for Senior Citizens and Families into the 21st Century Act of 1999, Public Law 106-74; Departments of Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development; Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000, and Violence Against Women and Justice Department Reauthorization Act of 2005, Public Law 109-162.''
Very likely the above was one of Clinton's plans that Bush extended to design `more affordable loans' to minorities and low income folks---(i.e exploit the poor for the benefit of the banks), and maybe relevant to crisis of the current junk mortages. Me or somebody else would have to track these laws down and read them. You do that by going here:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html
You look up or track the law numbers through the above legislative register system. This gives you the bills as passed, plus their amendments and a list of the implimenting appropriations. The first part of the Public Law 109, means it was passed by the 109th Congress, so you can search by PL 109, since these will all be bills passed by that Congress.
You can also seach through the Congressional Record for transcipts and read the arguments.
These databases are the system the government agencies and branches themselves use. They are also what research types in all the lobbies and think tanks use to hone their influence skills to get special language inserted to their benefit.
Okay, for example, let's track Public Law 106-74 (1999). Here is the openinng section on HUD:
``For activities and assistance to prevent the involuntary displacement of low-income families, the elderly and the disabled because of the loss of affordable housing stock, expiration of subsidy contracts (other than contracts for which amounts are provided under another heading in this Act) or expiration of use restrictions, or other changes in housing assistance arrangements, and for other purposes, $11,376,695,000 and amounts that are recaptured in this account, and recaptured under the appropriation for `Annual contributions for assisted housing', to remain available until expended: Provided, That of the total amount provided under this heading, $10,990,135,000, of which $6,790,135,000 shall be available on October 1, 1999 and $4,200,000,000 shall be available on October 1, 2000, shall be for assistance under the United States Housing Act of 1937 (`the Act' herein) (42 U.S.C. 1437) for use in connection with expiring or terminating section 8 subsidy contracts, for amendments to section 8 subsidy contracts, for enhanced vouchers (including amendments and renewals) under any provision of law authorizing such assistance under section 8(t) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (47 U.S.C. 1437f(t)), as added by section 538 of title V of this Act..''
This is a rough idea of where to start looking for existing programs for low income housing. You have to go over the whole bill which is quite long and study the cited United States Housing Act of 1937. You can do that in google. Look for .gov listings. From the first google hit, here is the link to the US Housing Act of 1937 as amended (caution clicking here will download the file)
{http://www.nhl.gov/offices/ogc/usha1937.pdf}
See? This is how the lobbists do it. So, there is no reason we can't do the same. We, as in We the People, could probably come up with all kinds of great ways to spend 700 billion to `save the economy' from the bottom up.
CG