Directly supporting people is "socialism," a handout, and is seen as supporting laziness and vice. A loan must be paid back, which allows many Americans to view it as something encouraging responsibility and virtue. It all comes down to the puritan work ethic.

The problem is that government backed loans are just an indirect way of giving welfare, and a monstrously perverse and inefficient way to boot. It drives price inflation which gets captured by the vendors of the products/services in question (existing home owners, builders, universities, etc.) instead of those you're trying to help and it creates debt bubbles that represent a danger to the overall health of the economy.

Overall it's probably worse than doing nothing due to the price inflation it generates. Housing was reasonable across much of the USA prior to the 'oughts. The housing bubble destroyed home affordability, an effect which as I said persists to this day.