PHOENIX, AZ – Today, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo participated in a roundtable discussion with Latino community leaders about the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to increase economic opportunity in Latino communities. A key part of President Biden’s economic agenda is investing in communities where potential exists, but opportunity has been scarce. Over the past three years, the Treasury Department’s work to prioritize broad-based economic growth has delivered real results. For example:
- Hispanic homeownership rates increased by 2% from 2019 to 2023;
- Median real earnings for Latino workers increased nearly 4% from the end of 2019 to the end of 2023;
- Hispanic business ownership has hit an all-time high of 9.8%; and
- Hispanic family wealth increased by 47% from 2019 to 2022.
The conversation was hosted by the Raza Development Fund, the largest Latino-focused nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) in the U.S. The Raza Development Fund has been a recipient of several awards from the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), which invests in financial institutions with a track record of delivering capital to Latino and other underserved communities and businesses. The meeting was held at Valle del Sol, a community health center founded in 1970 to serve the Latino community and underserved populations. Nationwide, through the Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP), the Treasury Department has invested $1.6 billion in Latino-owned and Latino-majority shareholder depository institutions. Based on preliminary analysis, the Department projects that investments across the entire ECIP portfolio may increase lending in Latino communities by nearly $58 billion over the next decade.
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