DURHAM, N.C. – The Center for Community Self-Help, parent of two community development credit unions, said yesterday its Self-Help Ventures Fund has been accepted as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, the Bank’s first CDFI-affiliated organization allowed under the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act.
The FHLB membership will provide the Ventures Fund with access to low-cost funding for the group’s secondary mortgage market program. Previously, only banks, credit unions or insurance companies were eligible for membership in the 12 FHLBs.
Both of the group’s credit unions, North Carolina’s Self-Help CU and California’s Self-Help FCU, already are members of the Atlanta Bank.
Self-Help plans to use the FHLB advances to finance the Ventures Fund’s affordable housing home loan program and to spur other types of community development lending.
"We have worked for more than 10 years to make this partnership possible, and together with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, we believe we can provide the financing that will enable thousands of well-qualified homeowners to buy their first homes,” said Martin Eakes, head of the Self-Help group.
