As an emerging CDFI serving the state of MN with small dollar consumer lending, this funding is essential to us to help combat predatory lending that strips wealth from low-income communities and allows us to provide stabilizing capital to communities to stay housed, employed, and (re)build credit to reach their asset building goals (e.g. car and home ownership) for the future.
CDFIs are critical to driving real estate development in underserved communities and during challenging economic times. We have developed more than $100 M in projects using CDFI financing and it is a critical component to the capital stack, as well as important for delivering transformative projects to communities across the country.
I appreciate the aspect of the program that puts decision-making in the hands of non-governmental institutions. I think this facilitates efficient use of tax-payer dollars.