Thank you to our partners at Inclusive and CDBA for sharing data on CDFI Bank and CDFI Credit Union branch locations. In addition, about 100 of our CDFI Stories come from OFN’s story database.
Since 2008, CDFI Sustainable Neighborhoods has lent over $600 million to New York State homeowners at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. Our lending programs have stabilized tens of thousands of households, thus preventing family displacement that leads to personal financial hardship and expenditures of substantial government funding needed to prevent or address homelessness across New York’s rural, suburban, and urban regions.
CDFIs provide access to critical financial services and education in a way that’s accessible to and designed for low income and low wealth people and families. CDFIs help strengthen the US economy by expanding opportunities for homeownership, small business, and consumer credit., and federal grants to CDFIs are leveraged many times over by private capital. Due to the success of this work, the CDFI Fund has been sustained by broad, bipartisan support for 25 years.
In Syracuse’s depressed economy, CDFIs have been a lifeline for aiding some of the most financially challenged residents and businesses. My credit union has leveraged CDFI funds to lift many households out of poverty, and we need this to continue.
The CDFI industry has grown thanks to broad bipartisan support over the last 25 years. We’re counting on Congress to keep this essential economic development engine moving forward.