Senator Elizabeth Warren and three Democratic colleagues urged Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates to help bring down housing costs ahead of the central bank’s policy meeting this week.

“High interest rates have aggravated the country’s persistent crisis of housing access and affordability,” the senators wrote in a letter dated Jan. 28. “As the Fed weighs its next steps in the new year, we urge you to consider the effects of your interest rate decisions on the housing market and to reverse the troubling rate hikes that have put affordable housing out of reach for too many.”