Announcement

Aug 26, 2002

National Housing Trust Community Development Fund Receives $1,000,000 Award from the U.S. Department Of The Treasury; is Certified as a Community Development Financial Institution

Washington D.C. August 26, 2002 – The National Housing Trust Community Development Fund (NHTCDF) was awarded $1,000,000 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund under the 2002 Core and Intermediary Component of the CDFI Program. The award was made after the CDFI Fund certified NHTCDF as a Community Development Financial Institution, meaning that the Fund recognized NHTCDF’s work providing financing for community development projects in distressed communities lacking adequate financial resources.

"We are very grateful for the award by the Treasury Department. Making these loans to our partners is a win-win proposition," according to Michael Bodaken, President of NHTCDF. NHTCDF intends to use the award from the Treasury Department to boost its lending to nonprofit purchasers of affordable housing during 2003.

NHTCDF was one of only 51 community-based organizations to receive an award under the Core and Intermediary Component of the CDFI Program in 2002. In this extremely competitive Core funding round, the CDFI Fund received 231 grant applications from 38 states, totaling approximately $220 million in requests. The CDFI Fund awarded a total of $41,574,966 under the Core and Intermediary Component, the Fund’s original and largest program, for an average award of $815,000.

The Treasury CDFI award was the culmination of several years of effort to create a successful Affordable Housing Preservation Loan Fund within the National Housing Trust. NHTCDF’s certification will remain effective until July 2005, and will greatly enhance NHT’s ability to raise capital to lend thanks to the possibility of future matching grants from the CDFI Fund.

NHTCDF lends funds, at below market interest rates, to nonprofit housing corporations seeking to preserve and improve affordable multifamily housing. The majority of NHTCDF’s loans are provided to purchasers seeking to preserve and improve housing available to very low- or low-income households. NHTCDF makes these loans available to qualified, tax-exempt nonprofit housing development corporations for costs associated with the purchase of these properties.

For more information, contact Eric Herrmann at the National Housing Trust, 202-333-8931, ext. 10