KRobinson2 at doc.gov
02-19-1999, 07:46 AM
Response to Norm MacIssac
Dear Colleagues,
'm not an authority on RLFs, but I am told that the U.S. Economic
Development Administration has a very good record with RLFs actually
surviving without additional capitalization. I should make two important
caveats on this. Some of our RLFs are in areas responding to defense
downsizing, which are not necessarily severely disadvantaged communities.
Consequently, we may be "creaming" results to a small degree. However, our
non-defense RLFs seem to be very sustainable as well, and they are required
to be in distressed areas (based on income and unemployment statistics).
Second, we do a less than perfect job of tracking the RLFs that do fail.
While we have recapitalized some RLFs, it is usually to meet greater
demand.
EDA was one the first agencies in the US to use RLFs, and has been
expanding their use as budget allows. In addition to defense adjustment,
our other major RLF categories are for general economic adjustment, and for
recovery from natural disasters. Recently, we have also been experimenting
with selling economic development RLF loans in secondary markets. Several
securitizations have already occurred, and we are considering expanding the
practice, although this is an area of evolving policy. We do have one
recent evaluation of our Defense Adjustment RLFs, and a second evaluation
of our total RLF program is being undertaken currently. The first
evaluation can be obtained by calling our office (listed below). The
second one won't probably be out until early next year.
Best Wishes,
Kelly Robinson
Research and National Technical Assistance
U.S. Economic Development Administration
Room 7019
U.S. Dept. of Commerce
Washington, DC 20230
(202) 482-4085
email: krobinson2@doc.gov
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
Dear Colleagues,
'm not an authority on RLFs, but I am told that the U.S. Economic
Development Administration has a very good record with RLFs actually
surviving without additional capitalization. I should make two important
caveats on this. Some of our RLFs are in areas responding to defense
downsizing, which are not necessarily severely disadvantaged communities.
Consequently, we may be "creaming" results to a small degree. However, our
non-defense RLFs seem to be very sustainable as well, and they are required
to be in distressed areas (based on income and unemployment statistics).
Second, we do a less than perfect job of tracking the RLFs that do fail.
While we have recapitalized some RLFs, it is usually to meet greater
demand.
EDA was one the first agencies in the US to use RLFs, and has been
expanding their use as budget allows. In addition to defense adjustment,
our other major RLF categories are for general economic adjustment, and for
recovery from natural disasters. Recently, we have also been experimenting
with selling economic development RLF loans in secondary markets. Several
securitizations have already occurred, and we are considering expanding the
practice, although this is an area of evolving policy. We do have one
recent evaluation of our Defense Adjustment RLFs, and a second evaluation
of our total RLF program is being undertaken currently. The first
evaluation can be obtained by calling our office (listed below). The
second one won't probably be out until early next year.
Best Wishes,
Kelly Robinson
Research and National Technical Assistance
U.S. Economic Development Administration
Room 7019
U.S. Dept. of Commerce
Washington, DC 20230
(202) 482-4085
email: krobinson2@doc.gov
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list