The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is generally associated with its public housing, rental assistance, and low-income homeownership programs. However, looking at HUD’s past 50 years shows that its programs have had a much broader reach and have contributed to shaping the American housing finance system. HUD was created as a Cabinet-level agency in 1965, but through predecessor agencies that were later folded into HUD, it has been an active player in the housing finance system since the 1930s. Indeed the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”), which were developed in response to the Great Depression, are important actors in today’s U.S. housing finance system.