While many academic economists and housing experts have lauded the federal government's plan to establish the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, a Treasury discussion paper raises some big questions on whether it can do much to fix the nation's housing crisis.Treasurer Scott Morrison unveiled details of the NHFIC in the 2017 Budget papers, saying it would deliver efficient and cost-effective new funding to expand Australia's inventory of public housing.The new corporation will manage a A$1 billion infrastructure facility to fund local government projects such as roads and recreation developments that would help to unlock land for new housing supply.A special financing vehicle, known as the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, will be established within the corporation to distribute infrastructure funding to councils.Another core activity will be managing pooled bond issues aimed at private sector investors to fund development proposals mounted by community housing providers across the country.This part of the corporation's remit will be managed by a subsidiary known as the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator.The Treasury paper highlights an ambiguous feature of the NHFIC's role that will no doubt attract vigorous comment from prospective institutional investors in the bond programs. It is envisaged that the new corporation will operate at "arms length" from government but with the relevant minister reserving the right to direct investment to certain projects.There is an obvious governance dilemma in such an arrangement, on which the Treasury paper has called for feedback.Investor confidence in the integrity of the assets underpinning the bond programs would be undermined if investment decisions were seen to be open to political manipulation.Treasury is also seeking public comment on the government's claim that NHFIC will be self-funding.The government's stated objective is to avoid funding projects that would otherwise attract finance through conventional lending and investment channels."A key concept is additionality; that is, the National Housing Infrastructure Facility only funds projects that otherwise would not proceed or face undue delay," states Treasury in the consultation paper."Complementing, not competing with, other sources of financing available for housing infrastructure."This pledge raises a business challenge for the corporation because it would not be able to participate in projects seen as viable by other funding institutions.That might be a socially desirable investment mandate, but it casts doubt on the government's self-funding objective.