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Community Reinvestment
Summer 1996

A Map for the Maze

The project almost works--but not quite. With just a few more dollars, a new business can get started or an existing one can expand, new housing can be built or older housing can be renovated. It may be a business owner who is looking for a way to make a deal work, or community leaders looking for ways to provide new jobs, additional goods and services, or more affordable housing. The bottom line is, the dollars or the collateral or the expertise aren't quite there, and other alternatives are needed to make the "undoable" deal work.

. . . we offer a map for finding your way through the maze . . .

In this guide, we offer a map for finding your way through the maze of those alternatives. A sampling of federal financial and technical enhancements is included, but those programs both public and private will change as our communities change and our beliefs evolve regarding how to best balance individual and society responsibilities. What is needed is a method to locate possibilities, not just a listing of currently available programs.

. . . programs . . . will change as our communities change and our beliefs evolve regarding how to best balance individual and society responsibilities.

Gap financing that was formerly available through federal programs may instead be available through a state or local government, through nonprofit agencies or privately funded foundations or not at all. Some projects that were doable in the past may not get done in the future. Other "undoable" deals will get done, however, by partners who have found creative new ways to make projects work. What will not change is the need for community leaders, lenders and development resource people to form partnerships and work together to improve their communities. We encourage you to add regional, state and local programs to the guide. As federal programs change, you will be able to replace pages with updated summaries from the computer Bulletin Board or Internet pages of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Our descriptions of current programs are brief: the intent is to provide just enough information for you to tell if an enhancement might be a potential fit for your project. If it sounds

. . . the process of partners working together to make undoable deals work is likely to change little.

promising, additional information is available from the sources listed in the "contacts" section of the resource guide. We've tried to err on the side of brevity rather than length we'd rather encourage you to check further into too many possibilities than too few.

The appropriate role of government in relation to community economic development will continue to be considered and reconsidered. We will have changes in leadership, changes in priorities, and changes in enhancement programs.

What will not change is the necessity of analyzing financing gaps in projects and finding alternatives for filling those gaps. New tools for development and new partnerships may be forged, but the process of partners working together to make undoable deals work is likely to change little. We think the framework provided in this guide will be useful to those partners well into the 21st century.

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