Federal Housing Admin. to ask Treasury for $1.7 billion in support 27 (UPI) -- The Federal Housing Administration will need a $1.7 billion funding infusion from the U.S. Treasury next week, it told Congress in a letter Friday. It is the first time in the 79-year history of the agency, which emerged as a crucial backstop in the U.S. mortgage market through the housing downturn, it has asked for taxpayer support, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The FHA insures mortgage lenders against losses, guaranteeing mortgages to borrowers. It has sustained unusually heavy losses on loans made in 2007, 2008 and 2009 on relatively lax terms. Its oversight of lenders has tightened since then, and loans made after 2009 have the lowest delinquency rates in recent years, the Journal noted.