It’s not a new program, and I know I’ve read about it before without finding reason for objection, but, somehow, I’m seeing this sort of thing in a new light, recently:

Foreclosures are leading to home-buying deals — half off the appraised value — as the federal government sells houses it has repossessed.
For people who work in a select range of occupations, the Federal Housing Administration sells houses at half price under its Good Neighbor Next Door program, or GNND. These homes were insured by the FHA and foreclosed on. Now, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is selling them.

Back in pre-Obama times, I just didn’t see anything notable in government efforts to move public employees into the communities that they were serving. It seemed a noble plan. But after a stimulus program that drove the United States into massive debt in order to insulate the public sector from the Great Recession, after Congress slipped a takeover of higher-education loans into its oppressive healthcare legislation, and with a president who speaks of forgiving loans for students who enter into “public service,” the housing program has come under a wholly different light.
One doesn’t have to work for the local government to serve the local community, and surely many other professionals can just as accurately be assumed to be “good neighbors” as public-sector employees.