Habitat for Humanity Dane Co. receives $650,000 to serve more families

U.S. Treasury Awards $650,000 to Habitat for Humanity of Dane County through CDFI Fund In October, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund awarded 397 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the nation more than $204 million in awards. Among them, locally, Habitat for Humanity of Dane County was awarded $650,000 to increase lending and investment activity in low-income and economically distressed communities in Dane County. This funding will help Habitat for Humanity push their efficiencies further to serve more families with a sustainable and long-term housing solution through their homebuilding program. The CDFI Program invests in and builds the capacity of CDFIs to serve low-income families and communities lacking adequate access to affordable financial products and services. Habitat will use its funding for families that fall between 30 to 60 percent of Dane County’s median household income and that are unable to qualify for most traditional financing. Each family will invest 375 hours of “sweat equity” building their homes alongside volunteers and receive a 30-year mortgage with a below-market interest rate and monthly mortgage payments capped at 30 percent of the family’s gross income. This makes homeownership affordable and sustainable for Dane County residents. “This funding will provide so much more than walls and a roof – it creates a brighter economic future for modest means families right here in Dane County,” Habitat for Humanity of Dane County CEO Valerie Renk said, “We’ve seen firsthand how homeownership can break the cycle of generational poverty, racial and income barriers like no other.” Habitat for Humanity of Dane County was the first Habitat for Humanity affiliate in the nation to become a Community Development Financial Institution. “CDFIs fund economic growth and opportunity in distressed communities. By investing federal dollars alongside private sector capital, the CDFI Fund serves mission-driven financial institutions likes us and injects new sources of capital into neighborhoods that lack access to financing,” said Renk, “Being the first, and still among a small number of Habitat affiliates in the nation to take this initiative, is something we’re very proud of.” Read the full story at NBC 15.