Department of the Treasury – Budget in Brief

Community Development Financial Institutions Fund

Program Summary by Budget Activity

Dollars in Thousands

Community Development Fund 

Insitutaions Fund

Appropriated Resources

FTE AMOUNT FTE AMOUNT FTE AMOUNT FTE AMOUNT FTE AMOUNT

New Appropriated Resources:

Community Development Fund Institutions 

Program 0 $153,423 0 $153,131 0 0 ($153,131) NA -100%

Bank Enterprise Award Program 0 $19,000 0 $18,964 0 0 ($18,964) NA -100.00%

Native American CDFI Assistance 

Program 0 $15,500 0 $15,471 0 0 ($15,471) NA -100.00%

Administration 77 $23,600 77 $23,555 42 $14,000 (35) ($9,555) -45.45% -40.56%

Healthy Food Financing Program 0 $22,000 0 $21,958 0 0 ($21,958) NA -100.00%

Subtotal New Appropriated Resources 77 $233,523 77 $233,079 42 $14,000 (35) ($219,079) -45.45% -93.99%

Other Resources: NA NA

User Fees* 0 $220 0 $362 0 $619 0 $257 NA 70.99%

Recoveries from Prior Years 0 $3,375 0 $3,400 0 $3,400 0 $0 NA 0.00%

Unobligated Balances Brought Forward 0 $5,500 0 $21,545 0 $18,964 0 ($2,581) NA -11.98%

Subtotal Other Resources 0 $9,095 0 $25,307 0 $22,983 0 ($2,324) NA -9.18%

Total Budgetary Resources 77 $242,618 77 $258,386 42 $36,983 (35) ($221,403) -45.45% -85.69%

FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2017 to FY 2018

*This request reflects authorization of the Bond Guranatee Program in FY 2016

Actual Annualized Request $ Change % Change

Summary

The FY 2018 Budget requests an appropriation 

of $14,000,000 for the Community 

Development Financial Institutions Fund

(CDFI Fund) to maintain the existing portfolio 

of loans and grants and to administer the Bond 

Guarantee (BG) Program and the New 

Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program. 

Explanation of Budget Activities

Administration $14,000,000 from direct 

appropriations

Administration encompasses the CDFI Fund’s 

operational support and management activities 

for the CDFI BG Program, the NMTC 

Program, and ongoing certification and 

compliance monitoring for all programs 

including the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) 

Program, Community Development Financial 

Institutions (CDFI) Program, Native American 

CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program and 

Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI).

Legislative Proposals

The Budget requests extension of the CDFI 

BG Program through FY 2018.

By providing guarantees of bonds issued by 

Qualified Issuers, the CDFI BG Program 

injects new capital into our nation’s most 

distressed communities. CDFIs can gain from 

the potential scale of the CDFI BG Program, 

which offers low-cost, long-term credit for the 

development of commercial real estate, rental 

housing, senior living, daycare or healthcare 

centers, small businesses, and rural 

infrastructure, among others. The benefits of 

the program are realized at no cost to 

taxpayers as the program requires no credit 

subsidy.

The Budget proposes the following legislative 

changes to the BG Program: (i) to reduce the 

minimum bond issue size from $100 million to 

$50 million; and (ii) to revise the relending 

account language to correct a technical 

drafting error.

The Budget proposes to eliminate new 

allocations into the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF)

effective in FY 2018. This would eliminate 

recurrent funding of the CMF through 

allocations from the Government-Sponsored 

Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Department of the Treasury – Budget in Brief

Description of Performance

In the FY 2016 funding round of the CDFI 

Program, the CDFI Fund received applications 

from 423 organizations, requesting over $554 

million in financial and technical assistance 

awards. In addition, 34 qualified organizations 

applied for the HFFI requesting over $121 

million. In September 2016, the CDFI Fund 

awarded more than $148 million in grants and 

loans to 158 CDFIs. Additionally 9 

organizations were awarded $22 million for 

HFFI. In the FY 2016 funding round of the 

NACA Program, the CDFI Fund received 

applications from 61 organizations, requesting 

$38 million in financial and technical 

assistance awards. In September 2016, the 

CDFI Fund awarded $15.5 million in grants to 

38 CDFIs. This activity shows the continued 

strong growth in demand for CDFI Fund 

Programs.

In FY 2016, CDFI Program awardees reported 

that over 81.5 percent of loans were originated 

in distressed communities and to underserved 

populations. By regulation, CDFIs must 

originate 60 percent or more of their loans and 

investments in eligible distressed census tracts 

or to underserved populations. The threshold 

is set at 60 percent in recognition that CDFIs 

may need to address safety and soundness by 

maintaining a diversified portfolio. Loans in 

highly distressed areas may be higher risk and 

more costly to underwrite and originate. The 

trend for FY 2012-2015 indicates that CDFI 

awardees have been successful in meeting 

their mission of serving distressed 

communities and underserved populations 

while maintaining sound investment portfolio 

performance.

In FY 2016, 23 prior HFFI awardees reported 

261 HFFI investments totaling $137.9 million. 

There were 131 retail investments totaling 

over $115 million that developed 1,581,243 

square feet of new retail space for projects 

ranging from small green grocers to large 

supermarkets that served low-income, lowaccess census tracts. In addition, there were 

130 non-retail investments totaling over $23 

million in projects involving production and 

distribution, which developed 1,718,088 

square feet of space for eligible healthy food 

activities.

The All-application-award Cycle Time 

measures the average time from the date when 

applications are received to the date of award 

announcement (calculated in months as a 

weighted average). In FY 2016, the cycle time 

was 7.6 months, missing the target of 7 months 

as a result of additional application volume 

and implementation of the reestablished CMF 

Program. 

The All-Affordable Housing measure captures 

the number of affordable housing units 

developed or produced as a result of CDFI 

Fund awards, as reported by CDFI, NMTC 

and CMF program awardees and allocatees. In 

FY 2016, the actual results of 35,251 

affordable housing units exceeded the target of 

29,000 units. For FY 2018, a target is set that 

includes expected outcomes for the CMF and 

NMTC programs as well as measureable 

outputs from prior year CDFI and NACA 

program awardees.

The calendar year 2015 and 2016 NMTC 

investment authority was allocated in 

November 2016 as a combined round. The 

NMTC Program awarded $7 billion in NMTC 

investment authority to 120 Community 

Development Entities from a pool of 238 

applicants