NACEDA News

National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations        June 29, 2021

NACEDA News

People & Places Federal Advocacy Week Makes the Case for Place-Based Community Investment 

The People & Places Collaboration held Federal Advocacy Week June 21 – 25. The collaboration visited 30 Congressional offices from 15 states, including committee staff from Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Financial Services Committee. We also met with Treasury Department leadership. In our Congressional and Administration meetings, we made the case for:

  • Housing as infrastructure and the need for Congress to act;
  • Set-asides and non-compete periods for smaller and medium-sized community-based development organizations serving the hardest to reach communities across housing and community development programs;
  • Better and disaggregated data in the small business lending market;
  • Making the SBA Community Advantage Program permanent;
  • Driving small business support to micro and other businesses that face challenges accessing mainstream small business support;
  • Modernizing the Community Reinvestment Act;
  • Passing the Federal Home Loan Bank Mission Implementation Act.

"The People & Places Collaboration represents community-based organizations critically important to the equitable deployment of federal funding," stated NACEDA Executive Director Frank Woodruff. "We boldly took that message to decision makers across the Federal Government at a critical negotiating moment. We trust our message and priorities came through loud and clear.” 

View the People & Places leave-behind document, which includes policy priorities and information about the collaboration. Our advocacy agenda prioritizes equitable funding and data distribution, community power, and accountability for public policies intended to serve communities getting left behind.


Federal News
Bipartisan Infrastructure Agreement Leaves Out Housing and Community Development

The President and Senate negotiated a bipartisan agreement that does not include any of the President’s proposed $200+ billion in spending to rebuild neglected communities through the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, advance homeownership among communities of color, and invest in public housing improvements, among many other programs for which the White House released details earlier in June. NACEDA is hopeful that these investments will advance in a separate legislative vehicle, potentially reconciliation. NACEDA and our partners continue to work with Congress and the Administration to make these investments and to include set-asides for community-based development organizations serving the hardest-to-reach communities.

TAKE ACTION - Urge Your Members of Congress to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter to House and Senate leadership about the need to include housing in an infrastructure package.

Eviction & Foreclosure Moratoriums Extended; Rapid Deployment of Emergency Rental Assistance Encouraged

On June 24, the Biden administration took numerous actions to support vulnerable tenants and prevent foreclosures. The CDC, HUD, USDA, and the VA extended the eviction and foreclosure  moratoriums until July 31. HUD announced additional measures for struggling homeowners with FHA mortgages. The Treasury Department released updated FAQs and a fact sheet to support rapid deployment of Emergency Rental Assistance and prevent evictions. The revised FAQs offer additional clarity for grantees and make improvements to ensure ERA is distributed efficiently, effectively, and equitably. NLIHC has an ERA dashboard for tracking programs and funding distribution in each state.

A White House Fact Sheet encapsulates this whole government approach to eviction and foreclosure prevention. Register for the White House Summit on Eviction Prevention — the opening public plenary panel is tomorrow, June 30 at 1 pm EDT:

Up to $380 Million Available in FY21 Capital Magnet Fund; NACEDA Provides Recommendations to Improve Access

The CDFI Fund is tentatively planning to open the FY 2021 application round in the summer of 2021 with more funding available in this round than any previous round. A pre-application webinar tomorrow, June 30, will provide potential applicants with an overview of the Capital Magnet Fund program and how applicants can prep for the round in advance

NACEDA sent a letter to the Treasury Department in March recommending the Capital Magnet Fund create pathways to make the Fund more accessible to smaller and medium-sized community-based organizations serving the hardest-to-reach communities. The letter recommends set-asides and other programmatic mechanisms. At this time it is unclear if the Treasury Department will adopt NACEDA’s recommendations. We continue to work with Treasury to improve the accessibility the Capital Magnet Fund program.


 Funding & Job Opportunities 

Go to naceda.org and connect with us on social media: 

      Linked InFacebookTwitter