Brooklyn CDCU Moves Into Larger Facility

The newest CDCU in New York, Brooklyn Cooperative FCU, has expanded into larger quarters and attracted local dignitaries to a ribbon cutting. Chartered in 2000, the CU serves more than 2,600 residents of Brooklyn's primarily low-income Bushwick community. Among those on hand for the opening was Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York, who offered praise for the CU's work as a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site, which assisted members of the community to save over $1.8 million in Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) refunds this year alone. Velazquez brought with her a check for $253,440 from the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, which will allow the credit union to increase their microenterprise and mortgage loan portfolios and to expand into the adjacent neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, another underserved community.