The Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Act of 2008 — which President Bush signed into law July 30 — includes the creation of a permanent Housing Trust Fund that will provide as much as $300-million a year to increase the supply of low-income housing, especially rental units.

Money from the fund can be granted directly to nonprofit housing groups.

The National Low-income Housing Coalition, a charity in Washington, started a campaign to promote the creation of such a fund back in 2000. The campaign’s goal is to preserve and produce some 1.5 million affordable housing units over 10 years.

Some conservative lawmakers and groups have objected to the Housing Trust Fund component of the largely foreclosure-focused law, fearful that money could be channeled to charities with political (and left-leaning) agendas.

The law is the federal government’s most sweeping response yet to the housing market meltdown.

The law provides a number of ways that homeowners facing foreclosure can seek refinancing assistance, and provides mechanisms to regulate and shore-up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the struggling government-sponsored financial entities that hold roughly half of the mortgages in the United States.

The law also establishes some $4-billion in emergency block grant money that local jurisdictions can use to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed properties.

And it expands the low-income housing tax credit system that encourages developers to create more affordable housing units.

Michael Rubinger, president of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a housing charity in New York, called the law “the single most important piece of housing legislation we have seen in years.”