Donald H. Layton is CEO of Freddie Mac, which was created by Congress in 1970 to work with mortgage lenders to help Americans get lower housing costs and better access to home financing.

Read a June 13, 2013, Slate.com article that shows the affordable housing crisis isn’t limited to just the United States.

Read a May 14, 2006, Recordnet.com story about affordable housing efforts being slowed in Stockton, Calif., by rising land prices.

Read a Nov. 22, 2006, Christian Science Monitor story about land trusts, which allow people to own a house while leasing the land beneath it.

Read a June 23, 2007, Washington Post story about faith communities’ renewed efforts to create affordable housing in Washington, D.C.

KnowledgePlex is an online resource center for affordable housing and community development.

James N. Gregory is a history professor at the University of Washington and director of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. Among books he has written is The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America (The University of North Carolina Press, 2006).

Charlyn M. Singleton is president of God’s Woman Conferences, based in Rialto, Calif. She is a motivational and revival speaker, working with youth, women and men at conferences, marriage events, retreats, workshops and worship services.

Cecil Williams has been the pastor of the 7,000-member Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin district since 1963. He is a spiritual, political and social force in the Bay Area, and the church is a leading voice in promoting diversity of all sorts, social activism and community programs.