President’s Budget Stories and Data

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Rebuilding Together
Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation Lending in PA District 1
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Testimonials

CDFIs are critical to increasing access to capital in communities across the country. Here at Communities Unlimited, we are filling gaps that the market cannot fill. Leveraging the CDFI Fund, we provide lending services that are critical to basic infrastructure in rural places, sparking entrepreneurship in small towns, and deploying capital to increase investment in homes and property in rural areas. Our lending portfolio includes rural and regional water and wastewater systems, small business loans for unserved entrepreneurs who cannot access a loan from a traditional bank, and consumer loans for home improvement, private wells, and private septic systems in rural places. The best part about our lending services: our clients pay them off. These are not handouts but loans. CU’s lending services, through the CDFI Fund, are critical for increasing access to capital and driving economic growth in rural places.

-Ines Polonius, Communities Unlimited, Fayetteville, AR

This funding is crucial to meeting the needs of those who are hard-working, dedicated members of our communities across Pennsylvania, who often lack resources from other financial institutions to meet their needs to maintain employment, housing, and enjoyment in our communities. Without this funding, more people will be in need of additional subsidies to maintain living and thriving in our communities. Eliminating this funding will be far more expensive than continuing it.

-Will Hall, Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Foundation, King of Prussia, PA

CDFIs provide critical support to low- to moderate-income communities in the form of loans and technical assistance. This support provides individuals and businesses unable to access traditional financing the opportunity to build their financial acumen, responsibly manage debt while building credit scores and wealth, and eventually graduate to accessing traditional banking products. In the meantime, these individuals are able to start or expand businesses, become homeowners, purchase vehicles, and access capital to cover emergency situations. CDFIs played a critical role with this activity during the pandemic and are part of the essential fabric when it comes to uplifting local economies and providing individuals with a path to the American dream of homeownership and prosperity in a way that promotes self-sufficiency and self-reliance.

-Caitlin Solander, Baker Tilly, Pittsburgh, PA