Mendo Lake Credit Union: Lending for the Underserved

Tina Ramos-Ingold
May 21, 2010 | COMMENTS

Ukiah-based Mendo Lake Credit Union, a $97.5 million-asset credit union, serves residents of Mendocino and Lake County in Northern California. Among the many outreach efforts of this community development credit union is one into the Native American communities in the area.

Last June, the credit union received a grant from the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, in part, to expand its service to this community. Its outreach efforts to one of the smaller tribes in the region, the Habamotolel of Upper Lake— including opening free business accounts for the tribal council, membership accounts for all members who want one, and doing financial literacy classes for the tribal schools—has led to more than 50 new accounts. Next on the agenda is financial literacy training for the adults at an upcoming tribal meeting. The tribe has moved all of its business accounts to Mendo Lake Credit Union, including the construction account

For its new casino building, according to Mendo Lake Credit Union CEO Richard Cooper, “we have been partnering with Northern Circle Indian Housing (NCIH) on its homebuyer education and foreclosure-prevention programs, and I have joined the board of its CDFI, in the process of being formed, the Resource for Native Development (RFND).” NCIH works with member tribes to develop, construct, and manage more than 350 homes on 11 reservations. As a tribal government agency representing seven tribal governments, NCIH saw the opportunity for RFND to provide low-cost financing for micro-enterprise development and for home repair/improvement to homes on the reservation as an offshoot of its primary housing mission.

Partnering with both MLCU ($5,000 grant) and the Economic Development Finance Corporation of Mendocino County (another $5,000 grant), the group is looking forward to making its first loans in April. This will be a key step in obtaining its own permanent CDFI status, Cooper said. NCIH, RFND and Mendo Lake Credit Union will collaborate on a workshop on access to credit and first-time homebuyers.

“We are also extremely pleased to have been able to add a tribal representative to our supervisory committee,” Cooper said. “She is an employee of the Ukiah Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Hopland Tribal government council. She's a great asset to the credit union's volunteer family.”

Mendo Lake Credit Union's next outreach stop is Covelo—a much underserved small community north of Ukiah. The credit union was slated to start a financial literacy program at the local elementary school (including youth saving accounts) in March, start a class with the high school economics department, and conduct further outreach to the Round Valley tribal group with more than 4,300 potential members). Plans call for partnering with the Round Valley Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—the tribes' economic self-sufficiency program—to provide financial education and other programs to the tribal leadership. “Our initial contacts have all been quite positive and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship,” Cooper said.

Tina Ramos-Ingold is a public affairs specialist with the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues. Reprinted with permission from Credit Union Digest, the publication of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues.