The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to engage in the following practices based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (disability):

    - Refuse to make a mortgage loan
    - Refuse to provide information regarding loans
    - Impose different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees
    - Discriminate in appraising property
    - Refuse to purchase a loan or set different terms or conditions for purchasing a loan

The problem is that creditworthiness is correlated with some of the forbidden factors. For example, a bank denying loans to applicants with low incomes will, as a side-effect, disproportionately deny loans to African-American applicants, simply because African Americans have lower incomes on average than other ethnic groups. In order to avoid penalties for discrimination, banks must therefore lend to people whose credit doesn't justify the loan. (Of course, this was never the intent of the Act, but it's called the Law of Unintended Consequences for a reason.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?hp

But it's more complicated than that. The government subsidized housing speculation through tax cuts, subsidized mortgage security speculation through Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac's implicit guarantee, created artificial liquidity through the Fed that allowed the stock/commodity/housing bubble that just popped.

“Tonight, I propose a new tax cut for homeownership that says to every middle-income working family in this country, if you sell your home, you will not have to pay a capital gains tax on it ever — not ever.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/business/19tax.html

The one regulation that they removed (and shouldn't have) dealt with leveraging requirements.

To what, specifically, in his comment are you referring?

Oddly enough, the original commenter does not actually name the laws that allow "those people" to get loans to the detriment of us all.