RICHMOND, July 25 -- Virginia's housing authority will provide low-interest mortgages to gay couples and other singles living together, abandoning a one-of-a-kind lending policy that limited such help to married couples and single people living alone, commissioners decided today.

The unanimous decision by the Virginia Housing Development Authority was immediately denounced by religious and conservative organizations as an assault on marriage and as caving in to the gay rights agenda. They vowed to reverse the decision when the General Assembly convenes in January.

"The Governor's pro-homosexual agenda is clear, and it has nothing to do with sound business practices," a statement by the Family Foundation said. "Instead, he is lending his political capital to a risky mortgage on the future of Virginia families."

Housing advocates, real estate agents and representatives of the mortgage and home building industries hailed the decision as a common-sense change that will allow people who are not related to pool their resources to buy a house.

Under the rule, elderly singles living together, college friends and other single people were barred from applying jointly for a loan from the state housing authority.

Advocates also said the elimination of the authority's "family rule" ends two decades of discrimination against gay couples. No other state or federal mortgage lender imposes similar restrictions on their applicants for home loans.

"It's a great day. Long overdue," said authority Commissioner Jay Fisette (D), also a member of the Arlington County Board. "As a gay man, as a man in a 20-year relationship with my partner, I think that if I needed it, my partner and I should qualify for a VHDA loan."

From the dais, he added: "To those who are scared by me, I apologize, and I really ask you to help us work together and solve what I consider to be Virginia's real everyday problems."

The Virginia action comes after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer that declared a Texas anti-sodomy law in violation of constitutionally protected privacy rights. That decision voided Virginia's long-standing laws against sodomy.

Some lawmakers in the General Assembly have already promised to seek legislation aimed at limiting homosexual behavior.

Today's decision is the fourth time in a decade that the authority has struggled with the issue of lending to unmarried couples.

The authority eliminated the family rule in 1994. But that decision was reversed two years later, after then-Gov. George Allen (R) appointed new members to the board and urged them to reconsider its position.

The board once again considered repealing the family rule in January 2002 but backed off under pressure from conservative members of the General Assembly, who threatened to make the policy permanent through legislation.

Since then, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), who promised during his campaign to seek a repeal of the policy, has made several appointments to the authority board, including naming Fisette, the authority's first openly gay commissioner.

Warner aides said the expansion of the family rule has no impact on Virginia's definition of marriage.

"There is nothing in the proposed change that addresses the issue of what is a family," Michael Schewel, Warner's secretary of commerce and trade, told the housing authority commissioners. "Unfortunately, the raising of issues irrelevant to this regulatory change have created confusion about the intended purpose and effect of this change."

Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls said the vote reflects a bipartisan consensus that the policy was archaic.

"For the governor, it is just this simple: moving renters to home ownership is good for Virginia's communities," Qualls said.

"The governor's position since before taking office has been that it is financially sound and ethically appropriate for Virginia's affordable housing agency to broaden its reach rather than restrict it."

Administration officials said they expect lawmakers to introduce legislation to the General Assembly in January to impose the family rule again.

But some in the administration believe conservatives may not have the votes to override a Warner veto, especially in the less conservative Senate.

In 2002, lawmakers failed to follow through on their threat to make the family rule permanent. Legislation passed the House of Delegates 61 to 38, but it never emerged from a Senate committee.

The housing authority vote this morning came after a two-hour public hearing Thursday afternoon. At that hearing, about two dozen people urged the change, while a smaller number asked commissioners to leave the rule in place.

Jack F. Torza, a Realtor who represents the Virginia Association of Realtors, testified in favor of getting rid of the family rule, calling it "an impediment" to homeownership for many low-income residents.

"The family rule is in direct conflict with the overall mission" of the housing authority "to help our fellow Virginians attain safe, sound and decent housing otherwise unaffordable to them," he told commissioners.

Victoria Cobb, legislative director for the Family Foundation, urged commissioners to leave the decision to the General Assembly.

"Marriage has been the bedrock of nearly all societies," she said at the meeting.

"The commonwealth is an interested party in the marriage contract."