WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department awarded more than $17 million in grants to 21 credit unions and credit union organizations this afternoon under the 2012 round of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program.
The biggest award was a $2 million grant to ASI FCU of Harahan, La., to provide low-interest loans for healthy food initiatives. ASI also received $3 million in healthy foods funding last year. ASI also won a seperate $1.5 million grant to help it provide low-cost mortgages for African-Americans and Latinos in its New Orleans market.
The National Federation of Community Development CUs received $1.5 million; the North Carolina Community Support Center (for credit unions) received almost $1 million; and the El Paso CU Affordable Housing LLC got $100,000.
“This year’s awardees will continue to provide vital financial services in low-income areas that are typically overlooked by traditional lenders, bettering the lives of Americans nationwide.,” said Donna Gambrell, director of the CDFI program.
Among the award winners:
- NATCO CU, Richmond, Ind., will use its $313,000 grant to create the NATCO Community Resource Center, serving low- and very low-income, asset-poor individuals in its target market of Wayne, Indiana.
- Shreveport (Louisiana) FCU will use its $1.3 million as capital to establish the Shreveport Healthy Farm Financing Initiative, a small business farm lending program in the Mississippi Delta.
- Communicating Arts CU in Detroit will use its $1 million as lending capital for blended rate auto loans and for the products that will deliver the greatest impact to its target market.
- Guadalupe CU in Santa e, N.M., will use its $250,000 to expand its services and deepen its relationship to the underserved target market, and also intends to open two storefront branches while maintaining safe capital reserves.
- Brooklyn Cooperative FCU in New York will use its $950,000 for capital, loan loss reserves, and operations in order to increase its lending and its ability to provide services to its target market.
- The National Federation of CDCUs will use its $1.5 million award to deploy secondary capital loans and reserves to organizations located in distressed census tracts.
- Latino Community CU in North Carolina will use its $1.5 million as equity capital to support asset growth associated with its recent branch and product expansion.
- Self-Help FCU in California will use its $1.5 million to provide home and consumer lending to 50 highly distressed census tracts in Kern and Tulare counties in California.
The CDFI Program awarded 210 organizations a total of $187 million this year, its biggest round of funding in it’s 18-year history.
Last year the CDFI program awarded $28 million to 25 credit unions and credit union organizations.
