Nov 25Mercy Community Capital Receives $799,000 Grant from CDFI Fund
Denver, CO—Mercy Community Capital (fka Mercy Loan Fund) (MCC), a subsidiary of Mercy Housing and a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), announced today that it has received a CDFI Financial Assistance (FA) program award of $799,000 from the United States Treasury’s CDFI Fund.
MCC is one of 284 CDFIs to receive a part of the CDFI Fund’s award totaling $188.7 million.
“As the affordable housing crisis continues, and in many places worsens, it is more important than ever that we give affordable housing developers the financial tools they need to do what they do best: preserve and create affordable housing,” said Jason Battista, President of MCC.
MCC will use the award to increase its lending to socially responsible developers of affordable housing throughout United States, with a portion focused on Persistent Poverty Counties (PPC). PPCs are defined as counties where 20 percent or more of the population has lived in poverty over the past 30 years. This capital will also help MCC to grow into a $100 million fund for increased impact.
Battista highlights one of the country’s most pressing problems. Currently, there isn’t a single state in the country where a person earning the minimum wage and working 40 hours per week can afford to rent a basic two-bedroom apartment. In addition, the shortage of affordable housing is exacerbated by rebounding housing markets throughout the country and an increase in higher income renters who gave up homeownership after the mortgage crisis. Low income families are now competing with moderate- and high-income families for affordable housing.
Since 2004, MCC has received $9.3 million in CDFI Fund Financial Assistance program awards.
About Mercy Community Capital
For more than three decades, Mercy Community Capital (MCC), a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), has focused exclusively on funding affordable housing and essential community infrastructure projects that support affordable housing. By collaborating with socially responsible developers, MCC has helped finance the development of single and multifamily homes for rental and homeownership. These developments help underserved communities, including people with low-incomes, seniors, farm workers, people who have experienced homelessness, and people with disabilities. MCC is a subsidiary of the affordable housing nonprofit, Mercy Housing, Inc. (MHI), headquartered in Denver, Colo. For more information, please visit mercyloanfund.org.
About the CDFI Fund
Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $2.4 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through the Community Development Financial Institutions Program and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $57.5 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, guaranteed $1.61 billion in bonds through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, and awarded more than $434 million through the Capital Magnet Fund. To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov
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