Prestamos Receives $45 Million Tax Credit Award from U.S. Treasury
Prestamos CDFI, a division of Chicanos Por La Causa, has announced it has been awarded $45 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Prestamos is a community development entity that provides capital to businesses and community services projects in highly distressed, low-income communities in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas. Prestamos has received four previous awards totaling $125 million.
“As communities of color we serve continue to be impacted by the pandemic and lack of access to recovery funding, this award will provide us with a valuable tool to help people of color, women and veteran small businesses expand and grow,” said Jose Martinez, president of Prestamos CDFI. “It will help us to support the creation and preservation of living wage jobs, the expansion of vital services such as childcare, quality education and job training, and health care services in low-income communities in our four-state investment area (AZ, NM, NV and TX). We are deeply appreciative of the CDFI Fund’s continued investment in our mission at this critical time.”
Prestamos is a CDFI founded in 2000 by CPLC, a community development corporation created in 1969 to address the lack of resources and services available to low-income Latino communities. Prestamos provides 100% of its investment activities to disadvantaged business and communities. During the pandemic, the CDFI became one of the top three PPP lenders in the nation, working to ensure that minority-owned businesses had access to this resource so that they could remain in business and retain their employees.
“This award further demonstrates the trust of the U.S. Department of Treasury in our ability and capacity to provide equal access to capital to the communities that need it most. With these resources we continue to drive economic and political empowerment with the support of experienced, community-minded team members at Prestamos,” said David Adame, president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa.
The NMTC Program attracts private capital into low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making investments on qualified projects within economically distressed communities.
Created by Congress in 2001, the credit totals 39% of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years. This award is part of a $5 billion NMTC allocation authority package recently announced by the CDFI Fund. Federal data show that for every dollar of allocation provided under the NMTC program, an additional $8 of private investment is leveraged for the economic development of these communities.
