At long last the wheels of Washington have rolled out a bill to address the housing crisis! On July 30, President Bush signed the Housing and Economy Recovery Act into law. Despite its imperfections, the bill establishes an important provision for extremely low-income Americans -- the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

This fund will provide much-needed resources for rental housing from a percentage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's new business, thereby insulating the funding from the appropriations process in Congress. No less than 90 percent of the funds must be dedicated to "the production, preservation, rehabilitation, or operation of rental housing." NHTF is important for a couple of reasons. As Sheila Crowley notes, it is a part of the first housing production program to "specifically serve extremely low-income families since 1974." Second, the fund identifies and addresses the needs of the rental housing community, a community whose needs are often rendered invisible by narrowly defining the housing crisis as a homeownership crisis.

On a more sober note, the program will not be fully funded for extremely low-income families until 2010. Prior to that, many of NHTF's funds will offset the cost of loans extended by the Federal Housing Administration to struggling homeowners.

The establishment of the National Housing Trust Fund provides a victory for extremely low-income Americans and cause for Christians to rejoice. I, for one, will join the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in celebrating.

Andrew Wilkes is a policy and organizing intern at Sojourners. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Impatience can be destructive. But it can also be a catalyst to work for social change. In this sense, one could argue that impatience can be holy in some respects. As a Sojourners intern, this summer is my introduction to Capitol Hill, to the rich landscape of D.C., and, yes, to the bewilderingly slow grind of Washington politics.

For the last month or so, I have been tracking the progress of proposals to address the housing crisis. The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, which was introduced more than a year ago, may indeed become law next week. The president withdrew his veto, the bill passed the House, and the Senate should pass it to the president for his signature. But it may not; the hopeful wind of swift enactment has carried this bill before -- only to leave with members of Congress for the July 4 recess.

After witnessing more than 2 million foreclosures, plummeting stock prices, and an increasingly beaten path from foreclosure to homelessness, I hope that this time the proposal will become policy. Call me impatient, but one would think that broad bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, a measured endorsement from the White House, and the plight of millions of Americans would have given birth to a law by now. Nope. The wheels keep turning, and at long last, something may come out.

I am tired of waiting. Millions of lives are looking to Washington for action. I cannot help but feel impatient. No, I choose to be impatient. And perhaps the Holy Spirit is stirring -- maybe even causing -- this impatience to move me to action. If you are willing to consider the possibility that a holy impatience occasionally summons us to act, and further willing to entertain the possibility that this impatience is calling us to act on the housing bill, I urge you to do something. Call your congressperson. Organize in the streets. Inform your faith community about the crisis. Maybe do all three.

Andrew Wilkes is a policy and organizing intern at Sojourners. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.

The U.S. has a massive shortage of affordable housing, but there are some glimmers of hope. Check out Faith Fuels Affordable Housing, an informative page put together by the Religion Newswriters Foundation about the housing crisis – and some of the things people of faith are doing about it.

A few highlights:

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a person working full time at minimum wage can no longer afford the local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country.

The faith community can't solve the shortage of affordable housing, but most observers say congregations and religious organizations are having a significant impact in some areas and that they are poised to play an even larger role.

The U.S. House of Representatives is now considering the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act .… The bill moved out of committee July 31, and the House is expected to vote on it after the August recess.

Elizabeth Palmberg is an assistant editor for Sojourners.