Yes, and there are a couple of different programs. I was talking about the affordable housing agreement. I wasn't talking about the housing partnership initiative, which funds the streets-to-homes program for street homelessness. That's a completely separate program, for which the federal government actually funds municipalities directly. I had a lot of involvement in that in the city of Toronto prior to being elected. And it was extremely effective, because it was actually one of the first relationships in which the federal government, our government, got back into directly funding municipalities to actually show results in the reduction of street homelessness. It was a wildly successful program, which I'm particularly proud of.
You talked about the CMHC mortgages and your concern that those mortgages can't be broken, so to speak. This is a difficult challenge, because 30 or 35 years ago, when these agreements were put in place, CMHC went out and borrowed that money at a preferential rate and provided it to the federal co-ops at a preferential rate at that time. That allowed stability. You talked about developers not building rental housing because they can't get their money out fast. Well, co-ops are exactly the same. We had to look at it longer term.
You are aware that if a co-op breaks a mortgage with CMHC with five years left, then CMHC has to pay the penalty to the bondholder it borrowed the money from. You're not suggesting that taxpayers should have to pick up the difference when CMHC has to pay its penalty for a broken mortgage so that a co-op can break its mortgage more quickly to take advantage of today's interest rates.