INC NEWS - Duke University Invests $5 Million in Latino Community Credit Union for Loans for Low-Income Families

[Susan Kauffman]

----- Forwarded by Susan Kauffman/Allen/Admin/Univ/Duke on 06/06/2006 04:28
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             "angel"                                                       
             <angel at cooperativ                                             
             alatina.org>                                                  
                                                                           
             06/06/2006 04:19                                              
             PM                                                            
                                                                           











DUKE UNIVERSITY INVESTS $5 MILLION IN LATINO COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION FOR
LOANS FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES





(Durham, NC) -- Duke University has committed to deposit up to $5 million
in the Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) over the next five years. The
investment will guarantee affordable financial services for low-income
individuals in Durham who find it difficult to obtain loans and mortgages
through conventional lending sources because they lack credit history.





The money, which will be deposited in million-dollar increments, could
provide funding for as much as 50 mortgages, or about 200 people.  LCCU
will dedicate the funds for low-income consumer and mortgage lending in
Durham County, which is home to more than half of Duke’s work force.





“We are pleased that Duke University has deepened its long-standing
commitment to LCCU and strengthening our communities,” says Alison Beck
Yonas, director of financial management at the credit union and a Duke
University alumna. “We see this substantial deposit – the largest the LCCU
has received -- as a catalyst for continued growth of the credit union, and
increasing our ability to provide additional affordable financial services
to those most in need.”





LCCU is one of the fastest-growing credit unions in the country.  In just
six years of operation, LCCU has made more than 7,800 consumer loans for
$32.4 million. Three-quarters of LCCU borrowers have no credit history when
they first receive a loan from the credit union, and an average of 750
members create their first credit history each year through its
credit-builder and other secured loans. Members currently have $25 million
in total savings.





LCCU recently launched secured and unsecured credit cards, and continues to
develop plans for providing internet banking. Since its creation in 2000,
with the support of credit union leaders like State Employees Credit Union
(SECU), Self-Help Credit Union and the Minority Support Center, the credit
union has grown from $10 million to $34 million in assets, serving more
than 45,000 members with five branches across North Carolina.





“I am delighted with the success and remarkable growth of the Latino
Community Credit Union, which is providing important financial services to
this rapidly growing segment of the Latino community in Durham and the rest
of North Carolina,” said Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead. “I
am proud of Duke’s participation in launching this important enterprise and
am very pleased that we can provide this additional support to ensure that
Latinos in Durham can enjoy the many benefits of home ownership.”





Duke University became one of the credit union’s first and largest
supporters with an initial deposit of $400,000. Duke has helped to leverage
other institutional investors, paving the way for the credit union to
develop its homeownership program for new Americans, and enabling LCCU to
become a nationally recognized model for encouraging new immigrants to
trust and use banks.





North Carolina's Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing in the
United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic population
totaled 600,913, or 7 percent of the state's total population, in 2004. The
average Hispanic household contains 3.7 people (compared to 2.4 people in
the average non-Hispanic household) and earns about $32,000 annually
(compared to $45,700 for non-Hispanics), according to a new study by
researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.





Supporting the Latino Community Credit Union’s outreach to low-income
Latinos who want to become homeowners complements other affordable housing
initiatives in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. The Neighborhood
Partnership, launched in 1996, facilitates collaborations among the
university, residents, government and nonprofits to improve the quality of
life in 12 neighborhoods and seven public schools near campus.  Thanks
largely to a $4 million loan from the university to Self-Help, the
nonprofit has acquired more than 110 properties for first-time, low-income
homeowners in Southwest Central Durham and Walltown, a historically
African-American neighborhood north of Duke’s East Campus.





Duke’s deposit with the Latino Community Credit Union follows two other
recent university initiatives involving Hispanics.  The Spanish Leap
Program, announced in April, will offer training, including a language
immersion trip to Mexico, to about 30 teachers in the seven Durham Public
Schools in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. On May 31, a new,
specially-designed house for migrant workers, designed to promote quality
housing for itinerant workers in North Carolina, was dedicated in Kinston,
NC. Seventeen people will live in the house. The project is a collaboration
involving Harvey Farms, Mt. Olive Pickle Company, Duke University and the
North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.





http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2006/05/migrant_print.htm








Angel Romero
Director de Mercadeo/Marketing Director
Cooperativa Comunitaria Latina de Crédito
Latino Community Credit Union
201 West Main St., Suite B01
Durham, NC 27701
Tel: (919) 688-9270, ext. 227
Fax: (919) 688-9309
angel at cooperativalatina.org
www.cooperativalatina.org