As a founding board member (1982) and original board member of this community development credit union, I urge you to continue funding CDFIs that have a vital role in our community with its current housing crisis.
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.
As a founding board member (1982) and original board member of this community development credit union, I urge you to continue funding CDFIs that have a vital role in our community with its current housing crisis.
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.
I’ve been a member of a CDFI for 25 yrs and would never go back to a traditional bank, due to the good works that I’ve seen done by CDFI’s. I was also a board member for a few years at one, so I know the inner workings and understand the community missions they take on. My children and I have had a stable home for the past 18 years, partly due to the credit building assistance we received from a CDFI.