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Here are some important milestones in the history of community development finance and NDC:
Neighborhood Business Revitalization Program (NBR): An interagency initiative, designed by NDC for Congress and the President, and implemented by NDC on behalf of HUD, EDA and SBA, in cities across the country. Begun in 1977, this effort resulted in more than $10 billion in community investment in its early years. NDC both implemented the program and built local capacity in participating communities to carry it on. With local capacity in place, NDC’s role ended, but the tools are still among the most important community development resources in use today.
Small Business Revitalization Program: Following the successful NBR, this program applied the same approach at the state level, implemented by NDC for the same federal agencies, beginning in 1982. The effort was equally successful, generating investment of more than $10 billion in the participating states. As with NBR, the tools are still used extensively for community development financing.
SBA Local Development Corporation (LDC) Program: In 1969 NDC recognized that SBA’s 502 LDC Program was underused in general and never used in urban areas. In a five-year pioneering urban application of the program, NDC completed loans totaling more than $10 million. Later, working with Congress and the President, NDC helped create a new capitalization method to replace direct Federal appropriations for this program, and implemented a six-city LDC 502 demonstration project. With the success of that project, 502 was substantially expanded and revised, becoming Section 503 and 504. The program has generated more than $20 billion in neighborhood business financing, and is responsible for lending one billion dollars a year.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): In the mid-1970s about 95 percent of CDBG funds were used only for housing and small community programs, with little or no leveraging. NDC pioneered the use of Community Development Block Grants for the now nearly universally used, self-sustaining and revolving community loan funds for job creation and neighborhood commercial revitalization.
HUD Section 108 and CDBG “Float”: In 1978, working with HUD and Congress, NDC helped create an approach which made it possible to use the HUD 108 Loan Program for economic development, an application which previously had not been feasible. In the same year, NDC invented and pioneered in the use of the CDBG Float – a special way to double the usefulness of CDBG funds. As with our other innovations, these are still in use today, generating billions of dollars of economic impact.
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