FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 28, 2020

Christopher Gil
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
(415) 282-3334 ext. 152
cgil@medasf.org

MEDA’s Fondo Adelante Receives $400,000 Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Grant
Will help capitalize and launch Fondo Adelante’s nascent Rapid Acquisition Fund to support affordable-housing preservation and production in the Bay Area

San Francisco — The nonprofit Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) has announced that its community loan arm, Fondo Adelante, is the recipient of a $400,000 Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) Financial Assistance award. Fondo Adelante is a US Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) disbursing low-interest, small-business loans of $5,000 to $100,000 in the nine-county Bay Area, with a focus on the Latino and immigrant community.

Fondo Adelante will use the award to help capitalize and launch its nascent Rapid Acquisition Fund to support affordable-housing preservation and production in the Bay Area. While the CDFI quickly pivoted in 2020 to aggressively respond to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on Latino-owned small businesses, Fondo Adelante is on track to launch its real estate fund in early 2021. The multiple, compounding crises of 2020 have made the need for greater investment in affordable housing even more acute in our region going forward.

The CDFI Fund awarded 397 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) $204.1 million in awards. The awards, through the fiscal year (FY) 2020 round of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program), will enable CDFIs to increase lending and investment activity in low-income and economically distressed communities across the nation.

“I am proud to announce the fiscal year 2020 CDFI Program and NACA Program Award Recipients,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris. “These organizations are providing vital economic development and financial services to neighborhoods, businesses, and families.”

“Ensuring that families have affordable and stable housing is one of the key results that drives MEDA’s work every day” said MEDA Director of Fondo Adelante Nathanial Owen. “Leveraging this award from the CDFI Fund, Fondo Adelante will begin providing innovative acquisition financing to affordable-housing developers in early 2021 to speed up the preservation and production of housing that our Latino and immigrant communities so desperately need and deserve.”

If you are interested in supporting Fondo Adelante, please email nowen@medasf.org.

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About Fondo Adelante
Fondo Adelante’s mission is to provide equitable access to capital for housing, microenterprise and small business, advance economic opportunities through community ownership and advance the Latino community in the Mission District and beyond.
Details

About Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
Rooted in the Mission and focused on San Francisco, MEDA’s mission is to strengthen low- and moderate-income Latino families by promoting economic equity and social justice through asset building and community development.
medasf.org

About Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund)
Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $3.6 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through: the Bank Enterprise Award Program; the Capital Magnet Fund; the Community Development Financial Institutions Program; the Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program; and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $61 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, and closed guaranteed bonds in the amount of $1.61 billion through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program.
cdfifund.gov