Did you know that Citibank still has no branches, and no announced plans to open branches, in the the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and Hyde Park - representing nearly 40% of the city of Boston's population?

Did you know that Citibank still has not joined the state's most affordable and sustainable mortgage program for first-time homebuyers?

Five years after coming to Boston, Citi is still sleeping.

A column by Gretchen Morgenson from the NY Times over the weekend divulged that Fannie Mae recently forked over $60,000 to be a "gold" sponsor of the Mortgage Bankers Association 98th annual convention in Chicago. Freddie Mac did them one better and paid $80,000 to become a "platinum" sponsor. Yikes.

Fannie and Freddie have all but shut down their charitable foundations - dramatically reducing their giving to non-profits across the country. Most of the competition in the secondary market has gone away leaving only Fannie and Freddie left standing. This makes the marketing value of the sponsorships even more questionable.

What should they be doing? How about finding ways to support innovative and sustainable pathways to homeownership. Mortgages like the Massachusetts SoftSecond program have helped more than 15,000 homeowners over the past 20 years. With Fannie and Freddie involved in buying these loans on the secondary market, we could reach twice that many homeowners over the next 20 years with stable, affordable fixed-rate loans. That would be good news for homeowners and neighborhoods and might even give Fannie and Freddie some positive publicity in this environment.