Chicago Community Loan Fund helps organizations expand
Opening of the Hatchery, which received financing from Chicago Community Loan Fund. Photo provided by Chicago Community Loan Fund.
Since its inception, Chicago Community Loan Fund has provided more than $314 million in financing to individuals and organizations so they can start businesses.
“On the South and West sides of Chicago, you’ll see vacant lots, you’ll see boarded up buildings, you’ll see debris in those lots and broken glass. We see a lot that can be transformed. It can be a home, it can be a business,” said Juan Calixto, Vice President of External Relations for Chicago Community Loan Fund.
The Chicago Community Loan Fund provides resources to people who have a vision of making their communities better. It does this by serving as a real estate community developer that provides flexible loans for commercial real estate, social enterprises, housing and community facilities. The hope is that by providing these resources the communities where the investments are made will thrive. Some of the funding recipients include the Black Ensemble Theater, Regal Mile Studios, Stony Island Arts Bank, Blacks in Green and XS Tennis, as well as the Jewel in Woodlawn.
Calixto said because the door has been closed on people in low-income communities when it comes to financing, Chicago Community Loan Fund aims to reverse the damage done by discrimination, racial inequity and lack of inclusion. The loans that Chicago Community Loan Fund provide create opportunities for wealth in Black and brown communities.
The Chicago Community Loan Fund is known for its pre-development financing. If someone has a big vision for a development, Chicago Community Loan Fund comes in with that financing so the developer can hire architects, create an environmental study and create plans to take to a bank to get further financing.
People who really want to invest in their co
The Chicago Community Loan Fund is working with the City of Chicago on a program called the Neighborhood Rebuild Program. It includes the development of 50, one to four unit affordable housing properties.
“What’s really great about this particular partnership with the city is that we’re training about 60 to 75 Black developers who want to get into the investment business, so they can start creating wealth,” Calixto said. That group of Black developers are meeting with the Chicago Community Loan Fund on a monthly basis, providing technical assistance to them and targeting neighborhoods that don’t have a lot of investments.
“Chicago Community Loan Fund is here to serve the community. We provide very low interest loans, in this market where interest rates are going higher and higher. We want to invest in these low-income neighborhoods and make them thrive again,” Calixto said.
For more information about Chicago Community Loan Fund, visit cclfchicago.org.
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