From the Treasury.gov blog:
Today, President Obama delivered remarks on our growing economy and steady job growth at Ivy Tech Community College’s Corporate College and Culinary Arts Training Center in Indianapolis. The President’s visit underscores what is possible if we continue to make investments that increase opportunities for all Americans. The Corporate College and Culinary Arts Training Center was once a vacant building in a low-income neighborhood, and thanks to resources from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) that leveraged private sector investments, this state-of-the-art facility now offers students a chance to gain the skills needed for well-paying jobs in today’s workforce.
The Corporate College and Culinary Arts Training Center is a remarkable example of how resources from the CDFI Fund are put to use. Three local community development organizations – the Cinnaire, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Indianapolis, and the city’s Indianapolis Development CDE – used more than $33 million in New Markets Tax Credits allocated from the CDFI Fund to leverage private capital needed to finance this project which opened in 2012. These tax credits helped Ivy Tech Community College purchase and renovate the historic building that now houses Ivy Tech’s workforce development, culinary arts, and distance learning education programs, as well as office space for staff.
The CDFI Fund’s programs are designed to attract investment to low-income urban and rural communities, and lead to real estate developments, businesses, health care facilities, workforce training centers, and jobs. The capital the CDFI Fund unlocks makes an enormous difference, which is why President Obama requested $233.5 million for the CDFI Fund in the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 Budget. The Budget also proposes permanently extending the New Markets Tax Credit Program at $5 billion per year and extending the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program through 2017. This funding would bolster the CDFI Fund’s efforts to spur economic development and job growth in underserved communities. Further, this request provides essential support to the important and innovative work of organizations that have a proven track record of leveraging private sector investments and CDFI Fund resources to deliver economic growth to communities across the country.
The President’s visit today to Ivy Tech Community College’s Corporate College and Culinary Arts Training Center highlighted the potential that we can release if we invest in our communities, and it is further proof of the valuable lifelines that the CDFI Fund supports.
Original Post on Treasury.gov
