NEW YORK, NY January 10, 2008 —REPORTER: Priscilla Almodovar, the head of the state's Mortgage Agency, would oversee the money.

She says the idea is to pass legislation to make the fund permanent and create a panel of state agencies involved in housing to decide how the money gets spent.

ALMODOVAR: The Office of Mental Health does a lot of housing. The Office of Temporary Disability, the Office of Mental Retardation. It's all of us coming together as part of panel with outsiders and say, "OK, where are New York state's greatest housing needs?" and together, come up with a plan.

REPORTER: Housing advocates support the creation of the fund, but say they want more details like where the money would come from and over what period of time would it be spent.

Almodovar could only say the funds would be a mix of both existing and new resources and that the specifics would be released later this month. The proposal requires the approval of state lawmakers.