Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

MODELS & BEST PRACTICES

Argenta Community Development Corporation (North Little Rock, AR)
www.argentacdc.org
Founded in 1992, the CDC has renovated more than 65 homes and buildings in downtown North Little Rock. The CDC currently manages 87 units of affordable apartment rentals, has won national awards for its historic preservation work, and provides homeownership counseling to over 400 families a year.

Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (Atlanta, GA)
www.andpi.org
ANDP was founded in 1991 to support community development corporations. In 1998, it established the Community Redevelopment Loan and Investment Fund to ability to provide access to capital to rebuild and rejuvenate communities in Metro Atlanta, helping finance more than 3,100 affordable homes in the fund’s first seven years of operation.

Bethel New Life (Chicago, IL)
www.bethelnewlife.org
A faith-based community development organization serving residents of the West Garfield neighborhood of Chicago since 1979, Bethel New Life has created over 1,000 units of affordable housing and has been a leader in developing a comprehensive asset-based approach to community development.

CDC of Kansas City (Missouri)
www.cdcofkc.org
Founded in 1974, CDC of Kansas City has grown to create an asset base of $20 million and leverage an additional $50 million in private and public funds. The CDC owns a construction company, operates a business incubator facility, and has developed three shopping centers with over 200,000 square feet of retail space.

Chicanos por la Causa (Phoenix, AZ)
www.cplc.org
A statewide CDC in Arizona, Chicanos por la Causa currently manages over 4,000 units of affordable housing, valued at $110 million, operates three charter schools, owns a housing construction company, owns a 2,000-plus member credit union, and airs a weekly Spanish-language radio program on its activities.

Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (Wiscasset, ME)
www.ceimaine.org
Founded in 1977, Coastal Enterprises is known as a leader in rural development with a philosophy that looks to maintain a “triple bottom line” of achieving positive economic, equitable and environmental outcomes. The organization has made over $130 million in loans, thereby leveraging an additional $380 million, and has provided financing to 1,500 businesses.

Community Development Corporation of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)
www.slcdc.org
Founded in 1991, CDC of Utah assists low-income families achieve homeownership. People with disabilities, those living in substandard housing, those on public assistance who are seeking self-sufficiency, and people in danger of being homeless or institutionalized receive priority attention. To date, the group has assisted over 1,400 families in 97 communities throughout the state.

East Bay Area Local Development Corp (Oakland, CA)
www.ebaldc.org
Founded in 1975 to serve Oakland’s Asian community, EBALDC has diversified over the years. Today, 36% of its clients are Asian, 41% are African-American, and 11% are Latino. The group has been a leader in promoting individual development (“matched savings”) accounts in the San Francisco Bay Area, provides affordable housing for 1,700 people, and has developed nearly 200,000 square feet of community facilities, retail, and other commercial space.

Fifth Avenue Committee (Brooklyn, NY)
www.fifthave.org
Founded in the late 1970s, the Fifth Avenue committee to date has developed more than 600 units of affordable housing for low and moderate-income families in over 100 buildings and has brought more than $50 million in direct investment for community development into South Brooklyn neighborhoods. Fifth Avenue’s affiliate, Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, a social purpose staffing company, assists more than 750 individuals access decent jobs per year.

New Community Corporation (Newark, NJ) www.newcommunity.org/main.htm New Community, founded in the wake of riots in Newark in 1967, has grown to become America’s largest community development corporation. New Community has perhaps the nation’s broadest approach to community development, which encompasses directly owning several businesses, operating two charter schools, and providing affordable housing to thousands of Newark residents.

Organizing Neighborhood Equity (Washington, DC)
www.onedconline.org
Organizing Neighborhood Equity (formerly Manna CDC) has since its start in 1997 sought to blend community organizing and community development. This has involved tenant union advocacy work, as well as developing business ventures that employ community residents.

Quitman County Development Organization (Marks, MS)
www.qcdo.org
Founded in 1977 by civil rights activists, Quitman County Development Organization has developed affordable housing, owns a community credit union, provides grants to churches for economic development projects, and engages in a variety of childcare social services programs, and microenterprise lending.

Southeast Alabama Self-Help Association (Tuskegee, AL)
www.ruralisc.org/seasha.htm
Southeast Alabama Self-Help Association (SEASHA), formed in 1967, grew out of the Tuskegee Institute Educational Program, a tutorial program involving hundreds of Tuskegee students. Over the years, it has built or renovated over 300 affordable homes and developed nearly 300 units of affordable rental housing. It also administers a revolving loan fund that has provided $2.7 million in financing to area businesses.

Southeast Neighborhood Development Inc. (Indianapolis, IN)
www.sendcdc.org
The largest of a number of CDCs in Indianapolis, Southeast Neighborhood Development (SEND) has invested more than $26 million in community redevelopment of Indianapolis’ southeast neighborhood since 1991. This money has enabled the CDC to repair more than 400 homes to prevent their very low-income owners from being forced into homelessness, to renovate 85 vacated homes, to restore 135 affordable apartments for residents ranging from senior citizens to families to artists, to renovate and lease 150,000 square feet of commercial space, to create or improve six parks, to plant hundreds of trees in the neighborhood, and to provide 300 youth with intensive work skills training.

Southern Mutual Help Association (New Iberia, LA)
www.southernmutualhelp.org
Founded in 1969 as a community development corporation designed to improve the economic welfare of Louisiana cane workers, the organization has grown over the years to develop both rural housing and community development lending subsidiary organizations and develop partnerships with national organizations such as Rural LISC while continuing its advocacy work.

The Unity Council (Oakland, CA)
www.unitycouncil.org
The Unity Council, founded in 1964 by Latino residents of the Fruitvale district of Oakland, is best known for the Fruitvale Village Transit Village project, an innovative mixed-used development that links transit, commercial, community facilities, and residential uses.

Vermont-Slauson Economic Development Corp. (Los Angeles, CA)
www.vsedc.org
Located in South Los Angeles, this CDC has been a leader in inner city retail development. The 175,000-square foot shopping center it developed in 1981 was one of the few structures that was untouched by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In 2004, the CDC opened a second large shopping center, anchored by the Mexican supermarket chain Gigante.