Cclf 4th qrt newsletter

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COMMUNITY BLUEPRINT:

CCLF’S NEWSLETTER OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, ISSUES & FEATURES 4th Quarter/2013

A Message from our President

Happy New Year! We hope you will enjoy reading this issue of Community Blueprint as it captures CCLF’s impact in the fourth quarter of 2013 and celebrates the year overall. 2013 was a WATERSHED year for CCLF! Through our Community Lending and Gateway to Community Development Technical Assistance Programs, we supported the vision of more customers than ever! Our lending and technical assistance teams helped CCLF invest in the creation or retention of nearly 400 affordable residences and 200 jobs and rolled up their sleeves to advance commercial-retail developments that will bring new merchants, restaurants and healthy foods to long-ignored retail corridors. Our customers gave us the honor of helping them make 26 Chicagoland communities from the Austin neighborhood to Aurora, Illinois a little bit healthier, more dynamic and capable of attracting additional commerce. Because we are completely committed to helping create communities where people thrive, with the support of our 76 investors, we extended 37 new loans totaling nearly $19 million. Not only is this a new high watermark for CCLF, but it is more lending in one year than we provided in the five years, combined, leading into the Great Recession. We have no doubt that our investment in new alliances and partnerships; talented staff and more robust operating systems; and our elevated outreach are paying off! We will not rest. With unemployment in Englewood at 21%; foreclosure filings in Harvey, Illinois at 27%; small businesses struggling in Little Village; property values in many low-wealth Chicagoland communities stuck at 1990s levels; and wages for most Americans stagnant; we are more focused than ever on working to provide our customers with flexible, easy-to-access capital and practical technical assistance that they can use to continue retaining and creating jobs for local residents, commercial spaces for more and better goods and services and high quality, energy efficient housing to empower the lives of lower wealth families and individuals. Moreover, we acknowledge that our loan volume is increasing, in part, because conventional credit markets are tighter in the wake of the recession, as is the case for many CDFIs across the country. Thus, we cannot promise our communities that we will exceed our 2013 loan volume this year, however, with our very strong pipeline of loans, we want our partners to know that we are certainly going to try! On a personal note, I thank each of you who called, emailed, texted or sent a card to me — or gave me a hug at a meeting or on the street — regarding the loss of my father in December. I was very close to him; admired him greatly; and enjoyed his wisdom and company immensely. Please know how much your compassion is carrying me through this very difficult time. I now know that it takes a village to keep a man standing. Leroy Holmes 1942-2013

Thank you! Calvin L. Holmes, President


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Cclf 4th qrt newsletter by Emily Moen - Issuu