The Biden administration announced new steps to increase access to affordable housing as still-high prices on groceries and other necessities and high interest rates have dramatically pushed up the cost of living in the post-pandemic years.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen promoted the new investments on Monday during a visit to Minneapolis. The investments include providing $100 million through a new fund to support affordable housing financing over the next three years, boosting the Federal Financing Bank’s financing of affordable housing and other measures.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday unveiled a new slate of financing initiatives to support housing development, including a $100 million fund specifically for affordable housing.

The announcement came days before President Joe Biden faces off against former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate, where inflation is likely to be a key point of contention.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced several small-scale measures advertised as an effort to boost the country’s housing supply as families suffer from an explosive rise in home prices and mortgage rates under President Joe Biden.

Yellen will unveil the policies during a speech on Monday in Minneapolis. Among the measures is $100 million over the next three years in a new housing fund, which is designed to support financing for affordable housing.

The Treasury Department said the new funding will support the financing of thousands of affordable housing units.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said the swelling national debt is manageable as long as it stays around where it is relative to the rest of the economy.

In a CNBC interview, Yellen also noted that high interest rates are adding to the burden as the U.S. manages its massive $34.7 trillion debt load.

The U.S. opposes a proposed global wealth tax on billionaires, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, rejecting an idea floated by Brazil, France and other nations to tip the economic scales away from the megarich.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a message of mutual cooperation at a meeting Sunday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, highlighting the improvement in relations since her visit to China last year while recognizing that major differences remain.

After focusing on trade and economic issues for the first two days of her visit, Yellen turned to the broader U.S.-China relationship in the meeting with Li, one of China’s top leaders.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in Beijing on Monday that Chinese banks that facilitate support for Russia amid its war in Ukraine could face U.S. sanctions.

“We continue to be concerned about the role that any firms, including those in the [People’s Republic of China], are playing in Russia’s military procurement,” Yellen said in remarks during a press conference at the close of her trip to China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, where she boasted about improving relations with the communist nation.

After discussing economic and trade issues over the course of her visit, Yellen argued that the broader U.S.-China relationship was on the up.

“While we have more to do, I believe that, over the past year, we have put our bilateral relationship on more stable footing,” Yellen remarked during a meeting in the Fujian room of the Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square.

Janet Yellen said Monday that TikTok was discussed "briefly" in meetings with her counterparts in China — the latest sign that the prospect of a ban is rattling top officials in Beijing.

Why it matters: A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is pushing legislation — recently passed by the House — that would require the popular video app to be spun off from its parent company, China-based ByteDance, or risk being banned.

That possibility is the latest issue that could further stoke tensions over national security between the two global superpowers.