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NAFCU continues to advocate on behalf of CDFIs as demand for funding soars
The Treasury Department Tuesday announced the fiscal year 2022 application round for the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) program closed with 719 organizations from across the country requesting a combined level of $577.9 million in awards. Notably, the amount requested is nearly three times the amount of funding available and represents the largest number of organizations ever to apply to a single round of the CDFI program and NACA program.
“With more than 40% of all Certified CDFIs applying for Financial Assistance or Technical Assistance funding this year, and an additional 128 organizations requesting Technical Assistance awards, the demand for CDFI Program and NACA Program resources has never been higher,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. “This historic level of demand underscores the critical need for capital and credit in distressed and underserved communities across the nation. CDFIs play a pivotal role in delivering loans and investments needed to support the nation’s ongoing community revitalization efforts.”
NAFCU remains a staunch advocate for CDFIs and credit unions seeking certification to help further assist low-income, minority, and underserved communities across the country, and supports a proposal under President Biden’s 2023 budget that would increase in funding for the CDFI Fund by 23 percent.
In May, a group of 12 senators, led by Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced legislation that would create a new $2 billion emergency fund for community development financial institutions (CDFIs). NAFCU has long advocated for increased funding for important programs that allow credit unions to better serve low-income communities and sent a letter in support of the bill to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Big banks are closing branches in rural and underserved areas at a record pace while at the same time they are, hypocritically, fighting the ability of credit unions to enter those communities and ensure that people still have access to safe, affordable financial services. NAFCU supports the Expanding Financial Access for Underserved Communities Act, which recently passed out of the House Financial Services Committee, that will continue to support credit unions and their long-established efforts to eliminate financial disparities in underserved communities across our country by allowing all types of federal credit unions to add underserved areas to their field of membership.
Many credit unions want to do more to help underserved areas as banks abandon them and NAFCU maintains that passing legislation to help credit unions fill the void would be a commonsense first step.
NAFCU will continue to heighten advocacy efforts on behalf of CDFIs. Visit the CDFI Fund website and NACA program website for more information about the programs.