News

NCN News for the Week of July 18

NCN Webinar:
Growing the Success of the Section 502 Home Loan Demonstration Project
Thursday, July 21, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EDT

In this Thursday’s NCN webinar, U.S. Representative Sharice Davids and USDA-Rural Development Under Secretary Xochitl Torres Small will share with attendees about the highly successful demonstration project for the USDA Section 502 Home Loan Program, which saw two Native CDFIs double in one year the number of home loans that USDA provided on two Indian reservations during the previous decade. U.S. Representative Davids and Under Secretary Torres Small will take questions from attendees about the project and how legislation introduced in Congress seeks to turn the project into a permanent program with adequate funding to help meet Indian Country’s mortgage lending capital needs.

Webinar attendees will then hear from leading voices in the field about Section 502 and the demonstration project, including South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition members Tawney Brunsch, Joanna Donohoe, Stephanie Provost, and Lakota Vogel as well as webinar moderator and NCN National Policy Chair Robin Danner.

 

 

CDFI Fund Extends Application Deadline for CDFI Equitable Recovery Program Funding

On June 23, 2022, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced the opening of the FY 2022 CDFI Equitable Recovery Program (ERP) round with the public release of a Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA). The NOFA set forth the deadline for submitting the FY 2022 CDFI ERP Application via the CDFI Fund’s Award Management Information System (AMIS) as 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 23, 2022.

Meanwhile, on July 14, NCN hosted a webinar in which the CDFI Fund provided a detailed overview of the CDFI ERP program. To view a recording of this webinar, please click here.

Last Friday, the CDFI Fund announced it will be extending the upcoming deadline to submit CDFI ERP Applications in AMIS to September 22, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Additionally, the CDFI Fund will be extending the deadline to submit the OMB Standard Form-424 Mandatory via Grants.gov to August 18, 2022. This extension will provide organizations additional time to undertake a thorough review of the CDFI ERP Application requirements and prepare their Application submissions. The CDFI Fund continues to encourage all FY 2022 applicants to submit their CDFI ERP Applications as soon as possible to ensure a successful submission.

An additional webinar will be held to discuss updates to the Application FAQs, available new materials, and to take additional questions. The CDFI Fund will provide separate information on this upcoming webinar.

In addition to the deadline extensions, the CDFI Fund is also amending the NOFA to clarify eligibility requirements around audited financial statements. Loan funds, venture capital funds, and other Non-Regulated Institution Applicants are required to have audited financial statements for their two most recent historic fiscal years. However, if the audit for the Applicant’s most recent historic fiscal year is not complete as of the due date of the AMIS Application, the Applicant must have audited financial statements for its two historic fiscal years prior to its most recent historic fiscal year. Regulated Institution Applicants that file Call Reports to their regulator are exempt from the requirement to have audits.

The CDFI Fund is releasing updated deadlines in anticipation of the publication of an amended NOFA in the Federal Register on July 19, 2022.

The new deadlines are:

  • August 18, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. ET: Last day to submit OMB Standard Form-424 Mandatory (Application for Federal Assistance) (SF-424)
  • August 18, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. ET: Last day to enter Employer Identification Number (EIN) and Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) numbers in AMIS
  • September 20, 2022 at 05:00 p.m. ET: Last day to contact CDFI Fund with questions about the CDFI ERP
  • September 20, 2022 at 05:00 p.m. ET: Last day to contact CDFI Fund with questions about Compliance or CDFI Certification
  • September 22, 2022 at 05:00 p.m. ET: Last day to contact AMIS-IT Help Desk (regarding AMIS technical problems only)
  • September 22, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. ET: Last day to submit complete CDFI ERP Application Package

Updated Guidance

All of the guidance, application materials, reference documents, and webinar information for the FY 2022 CDFI ERP application round are available on the CDFI ERP page. The following materials have been added or updated on the CDFI Fund’s website since the Application release on June 23, 2022:

The CDFI Fund will continue to update the application materials section of the CDFI ERP webpage as needed throughout the application round. Please refer back to the CDFI Fund’s website for updates.

For more information about FY 2022 CDFI Equitable Recovery Program Application, please visit www.cdfifund.gov/erp. For questions related to CDFI ERP, please submit a Service Request through your AMIS account, by emailing [email protected], or calling (202) 653-0421.

WATCH THE WEBINAR

 

Formal Listening Session on Community Reinvestment Act NPR Held on July 19

 

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19, a national coalition of Native organizations (including Native CDFI Network), in conjunction with the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD), hosted a formal listening session with federal regulators to receive attendees’ input on how the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) could more effectively address the investment and credit needs of Native communities, citizens, and businesses.

Enacted in 1977, the CRA encourages banks to help meet the credit needs of their local communities. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are seeking feedback on proposed rules for modernizing the law to make it more effective. At the formal listening session, representatives of the banking agencies highlighted the proposed rule’s Native-related provisions and received comments from session attendees. Tribal leaders, Native CDFI leaders, tribal citizens, and Native businesses are encouraged to provide written comments on or before August 5, 2022 by following the submission instructions in the Federal Register Notice.

 

NCN “Difference Makers” Interview Series:
Barbara Schmitt and Julia Nemark

 

Last week, the Native CDFI Network released its latest edition of “Native CDFIs: Difference Makers for Indian Country,” an interview with Barbara Schmitt, who serves as Interim Executive Director of Black Hills Community Loan Fund (BHCLF) in Rapid City, South Dakota. A federally certified Native CDFI, BHCLF creates opportunities for Native families to strengthen their financial wellbeing in the He Sapa Region through credit builder, home purchase and home improvement, and small business loans as well as matched savings accounts, one-on-one credit counseling, and financial education classes. To read the interview, please click here.

Coming this Thursday: “Difference Makers” sits down with Julia Nelmark, President and CEO of Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation and CEO of White Earth Investment Initiative (WEII).  A federally certified Native CDFI, WEII helps create jobs and improve community life for White Earth and other Native communities across Minnesota through homebuyer education, individual homeownership advising, financial counseling, business and consumer lending, tax preparation support, and other efforts.


To read the other interviews in NCN’s “Difference Makers” series, please click here.