Just a few weeks after I joined the CDFI Fund as a Senior Portfolio Manager for the Native Initiatives program, I had the honor of accompanying CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan as she traveled to the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations in South Dakota.
Thinking Local: Native CDFIs Support Businesses, Growth in South Dakota
SEPTEMBER 25, 2017
Just a few weeks after I joined the CDFI Fund as a Senior Portfolio Manager for the Native Initiatives program, I had the honor of accompanying CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan as she traveled to the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations in So (...)
CDFI Fund Programs Reach Far and Wide, Even to the Arctic Circle
DECEMBER 13, 2017
In late October, CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan and I traveled to Alaska to participate in the Annual Conference of the Alaska Federation of Natives and to meet with several organizations that have utilized CDFI Fund programs. To say that Alaska, app (...)
The Delta region is a very special place in America. Covering more than 250 counties from the tip of Illinois, south to Mississippi, and east into Alabama, the eight-state Delta region is home to ten million people. Its residents are hard-working, resilient, and creative people who care deeply about their communities. The Delta Region is also characterized by persistent and pervasive economic distress?with poverty rates three times the national average and unemployment that is double the national average.
Since 1995, Enertechnix Process Sensors, Inc. (EPSI) has developed innovative technologies for monitoring commercial boilers to reduce pollution and improve their efficiency, cleanliness and safety. Products include acoustic sensors for measuring the temperature of gases in large-scale boilers and infrared imaging systems for visual monitoring of conditions within high-temperature, particle-laden environments.
Over the past few months, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) Director Annie Donovan and members of the CDFI Fund's staff have been talking a lot about the CDFI Fund's five-year Strategic Plan, which will guide the CDFI Fund's program and administrative decisions in pursuit of greater economic and community development opportunities for low-income communities.
The Court Tower Apartments, a 14-story 1970s affordable housing building in the heart of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, had become an eyesore in the community. The building was dated, run down, and in the words of a longtime neighbor was "dangerously close to becoming a slum." The Oshkosh Housing Authority (OHA)had a vision of a completely transformed building designed to enhance the quality of life for the building?s residents?low-income seniors and adults with disabilities, some of whom had experienced homelessness.
The shuttering of three area Walmart stores forced residents in a 44 square mile swath of southwest Wichita, Kansas to live in a food desert. However through the partnership and support of the CDFI Fund, Enterprise Community Loan Fund and veteran-owned business Honor Capital, low-income families again have access to healthy food options and locally-driven economic opportunity.
One of the most energizing aspects of my job as director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) is engaging with a diverse array of stakeholders who care about creating economic opportunity in distressed communities and telling them the CDFI story. I find that too often, the innovative and impactful work of CDFIs, CDEs and other organizations served by the CDFI Fund is not as well understood as it should be. In order to spread the word about this amazing work, we are launching a new feature on our public website: Impact Stories.
In Brownsville, Texas, many entrepreneurs in this underserved and underbanked area (as well as minorities, veterans, and women) cannot receive loans through traditional means. Read the full story here.
The City of Conneaut, Ohio struggled with an aging telecommunications infrastructure. Essential services such as fire, emergency medical, and police (including the dispatching of those services) needed updated infrastructure to improve quality and reliability. Read the full story here.