First Loan Through Uplift America

Coastal Enterprise, Inc. (CEI) is the first CDFI to make a loan through the Uplift America relending program. The $2,460,000 loan to Central Lincoln County (CLC) YMCA, a landmark community center in the midcoast region, will allow for the renovation and expansion of its existing facility, originally built in 1973.

 

Uplift America is a USDA initiative to provide long-term, low-cost financing in impoverished rural and Native American communities. It focuses on loans to community facilities, facilitating the construction of schools, health care centers, child care facilities and other much-needed services in places with limited infrastructure development capacity and persistent poverty. Community lenders like CEI borrow from the USDA’s Community Facilities Program, with the first five years of payments to the USDA guaranteed by Bank of America. A group of foundations including several Mission Investors Exchange members catalyzed the program through grants that cover certain balance sheet obligations for the CDFIs and administrative costs.