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AEI Regional
Initiatives - Memphis
Area Office
FDIC Community Affairs staff in the Memphis Area continue to focus on hurricane
recovery initiatives and other gaps in the South Louisiana and Mississippi
Gulf Coast Regions. The Louisiana Gulf Coast AEI, which was organized in
October 2007, consists of a coalition of 70 members. The three AEI Subcommittees
are: Alternative Mortgage Pool Development (AMPD), Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
(VITA) Sites and Individual Development Account (IDA) Administrators Coordination,
and Small & Micro Business Development (SMBD).
The Alternative Mortgage Pool Development Committee focuses
on the creation of an alternative mortgage program that goes beyond credit
score underwriting
and can be used for hurricane-damaged housing rehab, refinance of predatory
mortgages or maturing high-interest rate adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS),
and foreclosure prevention.
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
Sites & Individual Development
Account (IDA) Administrators Coordination Committee focuses on increasing the
awareness and usage of the free VITA service and linking more low and moderate-income
taxpayers to the IDA Savings Account Match Programs in Louisiana.
Small & Micro Business Development
(SMBD) seeks to develop strategies to
help small businesses recover from the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita
through the development of special loan pools, technical assistance services
and neighborhood small business information fairs.
The Southeast LA AEI held a Small Business Recovery
Conference on October 30, 2008, which was focused on providing valuable information
to small
businesses affected by recent hurricanes. Breakout sessions covered
special financing
programs, Go Zone tax incentives, technical assistance services, State
hurricane relief services, and doing business with government, the
corporate sector
and
the film industry. The FDIC, which co-hosted the event, released the
publication of the new Lenders & Entrepreneurs Quick Reference
Guide of Southeast LA Small and Micro Businesses Resources, a concise,
directory of nonprofit and
government sponsored services for small businesses. Over 300 small
business owners, bankers, and others attended.
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