In this paper, we provide an overview of eight key challenges related to affordable housing and community development as well as background information on federal and other government programs meant to address these challenges. The eight key challenges include: rental housing affordability, homeownership for low-income households, foreclosure response and recovery, homelessness, the growing senior population, housing discrimination, neighborhood distress, and energy efficiency. Many of the programs we include have been evaluated, though our purpose is not to provide a synopsis of program evaluations but to consider how housing challenges have been addressed to set the stage for considerations of how best to proceed. As a result, this paper is descriptive rather than evaluative.