Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF), along with key investors, has created a $25 million loan fund to support African American, Latino and other business developers of color. The Communities of Color Fund was added to CCLF’s lending capabilities as another tool to address racial equity in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods throughout Chicagoland with a strong emphasis on Chicago’s South and West sides and suburban markets that lack access to low-cost capital.
Applicants, including for-profit and nonprofit entities, must be led by people of color, undertaking projects that include categories such as: seeking to create or preserve affordable housing; expanding commercial retail; creating jobs through a social enterprise; offering community services through a nonprofit facility; or other developers building such projects in Chicagoland’s communities of color. Eligible borrowers can apply for loans of up to $1 million for projects impacting low- to moderate-income neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West sides and in suburban Cook, Will, DuPage, Kane, McHenry and Lake counties.
Investors in the fund include PNC Bank at $10 million, Wintrust Bank at $9.25 million, Bank of America at $2 million and grants from Wells Fargo, MacKenzie Scott and the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund.
“This new fund will provide sustained, long-term investment and technical assistance in a holistic way focusing on four of the most essential pillars of a healthy community: housing, community facilities, retail and social enterprise. The fund will contribute to the rebirth of underinvested communities to advance CCLF’s long-term goal to transform our entire region into one with equitable prosperity for all,” said Calvin L. Holmes, President of CCLF.
“Our support for this fund aligns with PNC’s Community Benefits Plan, a commitment to help solve challenges of inequity in our communities of color, particularly in eliminating long-standing barriers to access to capital,” said Tony Smith, Community Development Banking executive for PNC Bank. “Creating opportunities for economic empowerment and access to resources that will help fuel sustainability for businesses is our responsibility. We believe this will help transform neighborhoods that have long been underserved, not only in our city, but suburbs as well.”
“As Chicago’s Bank, Wintrust is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with CCLF in championing greater economic access and equity in the communities we serve,” said Eric Phillips, EVP Lending Strategies, Wintrust Financial Corporation. “We are pleased to support CCLF’s efforts to extend its reach into the suburbs and across other areas of need.”
The COVID-19 pandemic created significant health and economic impacts on local communities, while laying bare widening inequality gaps and creating economic uncertainty into the future, with an even greater unknown endpoint. For 30 years, CCLF has worked to improve conditions in low-income communities of color throughout metropolitan Chicago. Founded upon core principles of economic justice, CCLF has prioritized equity to further its mission, vision and organizational objectives, recognizing that if the Chicago region is to continue to prosper, then every community within it must operate to its fullest potential. CCLF’s new Communities of Color Fund will continue this legacy of economic justice by offering very low-cost loans and more flexible lending standards to community developers of color.
To access the Communities of Color Fund, contact CCLF at (312) 252-0440.