Ever since it was created as a Cabinet-level federal agency in 1965, the Housing and Urban Development Department has stated that increasing access to affordable housing is one of its major goals. But the agency’s credibility has been rocked by criminal scandals and gross fiscal mismanagement over the years, and its role as a helping hand has been marginalized.

At least that has been the case under the Bush administration, where its affordable housing mission has been swept under the rug, as evidenced by budget cuts for low-income public housing programs.

As reported by The Washington Post on Thursday, HUD has been “a weak backbencher” during the ongoing housing crisis. One would have thought that an agency that has “housing” in its title would have stepped to the forefront in response to the record number of home foreclosures occurring in Nevada and elsewhere. But with HUD that has not been the case.

It is yet another one of the those headaches that President-elect Barack Obama will be forced to resolve when he takes office in January.

An estimated 5.2 million homeowners are still at risk of losing their homes in the next two years. But HUD’s Hope for Homeowners program, begun in October to help people renegotiate their mortgages, is expected to assist only 13,000 applicants this year.

“We’re breaking records every month in this country for foreclosures,” John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, told the Post. “But this agency isn’t doing what we want to accomplish, which is to turn the corner on the demise of the housing industry,” said Taylor, whose Washington coalition seeks to attract investments in underserved communities.

It is imperative that HUD rediscover its roots as an agency that promotes affordable housing programs. That means making sure that the 1,900 housing authorities nationwide have sufficient funding to adequately serve their communities, something that has not been the case under the Bush administration. It also means that HUD should come out from hiding and take a more proactive role in combating the foreclosure crisis that has gripped this nation.