Investors & Funders: IFF joins Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

This month, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago announced that IFF has joined as a member, making IFF the first Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to join. As a member of the FHLBank Chicago, IFF will be able to access the same advances available to other member financial institutions, providing increased liquidity as well as a source of long-term funding to support its lending in low-income communities.

“We have long admired IFF’s work and are especially pleased to welcome such a well-regarded and important organization as our first CDFI member,” said Matt Feldman, President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. “We look forward to partnering with them providing funding for projects that highlight our shared commitment to affordable housing and community investment.”
 

Wisconsin: Veterans Manor in Milwaukee

The Center for Veterans Issues (CVI) provides supportive services and housing to Milwaukee veterans who are at risk of becoming homeless. CVI partnered with Cardinal Capital Management to build Veterans Manor, a 60,000 square-foot affordable housing development. Veterans Manor offers 52 apartments and is affordable at 60 percent of area median income. 

IFF supported the project by providing predevelopment, construction, and permanent financing through two loans totaling $2 million. 

The building’s location offers easy access to a nearby VA hospital. The building’s amenities include, among others, a fitness center, a library, and community dining. Members of the community with barriers to work and disabilities, including veterans, are offered training for jobs in the food service industry in the building’s state-of-the-art commercial kitchen.
 
Veterans Manor held its grand opening on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011. You can view photos from the celebration on IFF’s Facebook page.

Illinois: Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago

Noble Network of Charter Schools has delivered an outstanding public education to low-income high school students in Chicago for more than a decade. Noble is the largest and highest performing open enrollment high school in Chicago serving more than 5,200 students across the city.  Noble is committed to continued expansion with a plan to double in size so that any student seeking to attend a Noble high school will have that right.

IFF Schools recently worked with Noble on a New Market Tax Credit finance structure that allowed the organization to secure financing for facilities improvements at a number of existing campuses across their portfolio.

This complicated transaction provided Noble a unique opportunity to collectively finance improvements across their network of schools. The transaction truly exemplifies how IFF provides a broad spectrum of real estate and financing assistance to schools, no matter how challenging the transaction.
 

Illinois: Hardin County General Hospital in Rosiclare

Hardin County General Hospital is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital (CAH) providing inpatient, outpatient and emergency care services to residents of Hardin, Saline, Pope and parts of Gallatin counties in southern Illinois. Of the organization’s 27,000 patients, 52 percent are low-income, and 15 percent are seniors.

IFF provided Hardin with an affordable, flexible equipment loan for $491,000 to purchase hardware, software, support services and the installation of electronic health records (EHRs). Installing EHRs will allow Hardin to maximize incentive payments from Medicare and better manage patient care.

Technical Assistance: Community Development Presentation in St. Louis

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Public Policy Research Center of the University of Missouri-St. Louis hosted a first-of-its-kind housing data conference at the St. Louis Fed’s Gateway Conference Center on Thursday, June 2, 2011. IFF’s Missouri office presented on a panel entitled “Where’s the Money? A Deeper Dive into Community Development in St. Louis”.

The panel focused on the importance of accurate data in developing successful community development initiatives and provided an update on community development funding in the St. Louis region. Topics included grants, equity, debt, tax credits, investments, new ideas and emerging trends. Panelists from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors addressed the sources and uses of money and how it is or isn’t flowing through the community.

IFF Loan Officer Kate Reese shared a summary of the current landscape surrounding community development finance and highlighted some industry challenges and opportunities.