The Biden administration is awarding more than 600 community lenders $1.7 billion in grants from a Treasury Department program intended to help small businesses recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Bloomberg) — The Biden administration is awarding more than 600 community lenders $1.7 billion in grants from a Treasury Department program intended to help small businesses recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vice President Kamala Harris, joined by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, announced the grants on Monday, and said they would allow community development financial institutions to aid underserved groups such as minority-led small businesses, low-income communities and rural areas.
“These grants — representing the largest CDFI grant program in history – will enable hundreds of community lenders to invest in small businesses and entrepreneurs, and also provide home loans for families, financial services for local nonprofits, and capital for community organizations,” Harris said in a statement.
Grant funds through the CDFI Equitable Recovery Program can be used to support lending related to small businesses and microenterprises, housing, commercial real estate, and nonprofits, according to a release.
“Because these grants are not loans, community lenders do not need to pay back not even a dollar of this investment,” Harris told reporters on a call Monday.
The funding is the latest in a string of partnerships between the Treasury Department and the vice president’s office to advance financial equity. Among the institutions being granted funding are New Orleans-based Liberty Financial Services Inc. and Lancaster, Pennsylvania,-based Community First Fund, which each received $6 million.
The Equitable Recovery Program was established to support low- and middle-income communities that struggled financially during the coronavirus outbreak.
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