WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Mark Warner (D-VA) recently introduced the Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development (AFFORD) Act to increase and strengthen community development financial institutions (CDFIs).

Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), issued the following statement:

CDFIs play a vital role in boosting housing supply, particularly affordable housing, which is desperately needed right now.

The bill will improve CDFIs’ ability to transform relatively limited public dollars into larger pools of private capital to target small business development and critical infrastructure investment where it’s needed most in communities throughout the nation.

CRL is an affiliate of Self-Help, a family of nonprofits that also includes three CDFIs: a credit union, federal credit union, and ventures fund. 

The AFFORD Act would:

  • Require annual testimony from the Treasury on the operations of the CDFI Fund;
  • Extend the authorization of the CDFI Bond Guarantee program and expand access to this source of long-term financing;
  • Support a secondary market and other facilities to create liquidity for CDFI loans, freeing up resources for CDFIs to extend more affordable credit; and
  • Expand a partnership between USDA and Native CDFIs that expands access to homeownership for Native homebuyers.

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Press Contact: Alfred King alfred.king@responsiblelending.org