if you can do it in a way that is financially sound, every American should be interested in expanding housing opportunities for people
We have BANKS to figure that out, or at least we used to until the government started telling them to lend money to people who did not meet bank standards in the name of the racial fairness that Newt is extolling here. We don't need Washington wonks or NGOs to expand home ownership - they made the problem worse. Newt takes a government-centric view of things, and that is exactly the opposite of what we need.
He was a consultant, and many of the things he advised them to do are exactly the suggestions that have been made since (for example, particularly with regard to their increasingly risky lending policy). Fannie and Freddie may not have been good things, but they were established entities at that time, and the only question was how to make them work.
They took none of his suggestions. It was all eyewash to make them look good, and is the usual song and dance of every NGO or agency: hire a consultant, get all sorts of ideas from him, thank him and throw all his ideas in the trash.