1,798 loans and investments totaling $249 million in Puerto Rico in 2022
Stories from the District
Cooperativa Jesus Obrero: Leveraging Solar Power to Withstand Hurricanes
Guaynabo,
Puerto Rico
Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Jesus Obrero
Even before Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, causing $90 billion in damage, frequent climate events motivated Cooperativa Jesús Obrero to build resilient infrastructure that can provide lower utility bills and alternative power to its members. Its President Aurelio Arroyo González describes that the cooperativa is part of the “critical infrastructure” helping the community to function on a day-to-day basis as well as prepare for and recover from natural disasters.
NeighborWorks Capital is pleased to renew a $10,000,000 acquisition/predevelopment line of credit to Hispanic Housing Development Corporation (HHDC). The renewal of this line of credit will allow for significant investment in new operating property acquisitions and will support predevelopment costs for HHDC’s development pipeline.
How Financial Co-ops Are Helping Puerto Rico Rebuild — and Why It Matters for New York
San Juan,
Puerto Rico
Inclusiv
The banking industry in Puerto Rico, much like on the mainland, has always catered to wealthier consumers and businesses, rather than low-income people and communities. The financial cooperative system in Puerto Rico goes back at least 50 years and emerged for the same reasons as credit unions on the mainland, including lack of access to financial services. Large numbers of Puerto Ricans have long been disenfranchised from the financial system. The cooperative financial system in Puerto Rico is very strong. One in three Puerto Ricans — more than one million people — are members of these cooperativas. That network of 125 cooperativas has been part of the DNA of Puerto Rican communities, rural communities especially, for generations.
The success of the Puerto Rico CDFI Initiative is a testament to the power of partnerships and to the resolve of financial cooperatives to obtain resources for the benefit of the communities they serve. The CDFI transformation is now a reality, and we are proud to continue to work to help cooperativas gain access to resources that were only available to CDFI’s in the mainland.
Inclusiv Story – Cooperativa La Sagrada Familia CU
Corozal,
Puerto Rico
Cooperativa De Ahorro y Credito La Sagrada Familia
Cooperativa La Sagrada Familia promotes community development by providing capital and financial services to individuals and communities that are typically not served by traditional financial institutions, and improves their quality of life through an effective dissemination of the values and principles of the Cooperative Movement.
