With a $5.4 million grant, BlueHub Loan Fund will expand lending in Gulf states to help build healthy communities where low-income people live and work
BlueHub Capital today announces its affiliate, BlueHub Loan Fund, a leading national nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI), has been awarded over $5.4 million in funding from the Department of the US Treasury’s CDFI Fund. For the second year in a row, BlueHub received the largest award of any CDFI.
BlueHub Loan Fund helps connect low-income communities, many of them communities of color, with flexible financing to generate equitable and inclusive economic opportunity. BlueHub Loan Fund cultivates local partnerships to identify, develop and invest in real estate-related projects that align with resident priorities, such as affordable housing, public charter schools, health centers, grocery stores and other community facilities.
“BlueHub Loan Fund uses innovative financial tools to create wealth and opportunity, and fill unmet community needs,” said Elyse Cherry, CEO of BlueHub Capital. “This award acknowledges our commitment to these goals and boosts our ability to deliver flexible financing.”
“This generous award supports BlueHub Loan Fund’s intentional investment in low-income communities that have been systemically denied access to capital,” said Michelle Volpe, president of BlueHub Loan Fund. “This funding will enable us to provide critical, early-stage financing to projects that would not come to fruition without our capital. We are also focused on communities where assets are undervalued due to historic and racially motivated disinvestment and where key projects have difficulty attracting sufficient financing from conventional lenders. Where other lenders step back, we step in.”
BlueHub’s $5,440,000 in CDFI Fund awards include:
- A $4,250,000 Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance award to increase access to fresh, affordable food in communities where disproportionately large percentages of residents struggle with food insecurity.
- A $590,000 Financial Assistance award to expand lending in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Funding will support affordable housing projects, commercial projects that generate economic opportunities, public charter school facilities and health centers.
- A $500,0000 Disability Fund-Financial Assistance award to increase financing for deeply affordable supportive housing projects that serve individuals at risk of homelessness in cities with a high cost of living and acute shortages of affordable housing, such as Boston, Los Angeles and New York.
- A $100,000 Persistent Poverty County-Financial Assistance award to aid BlueHub investments in Alabama, Maryland, New York, Louisiana and Mississippi in counties where greater than 20 percent of the population lives in poverty.
The CDFI Fund awarded 422 organizations $188.5 million in awards in FY 2021.
S&P Global Ratings recently upgraded BlueHub Loan Fund’s financial outlook from ‘A-’ to ‘A’ with a stable outlook, citing increased equity and strong portfolio management. BlueHub Loan Fund was also one of only four organization to receive a Credit Enhancement Award from the US Department of Education in 2021.
About BlueHub Capital
BlueHub Capital is a national nonprofit community finance organization with a decades-long history of building healthy communities where low-income people live and work. Since 1985, BlueHub Capital has invested over $2.4 billion to support low-income communities, creating and preserving over 28,000 units of affordable housing, 19,000 jobs, healthcare services for more than 197,000 patients, education and daycare for more than 85,000 children, and prevented over 1,150 foreclosure-related evictions. To learn more about BlueHub Capital and the impact of its investments, visit bluehubcapital.org.