Baltimore Interfaith Organization to Fund Community Development

February 21, 2003

Source: The Baltimore Sun

http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.fund21feb21,0,7364070.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dheadlines

On February 21, 2003 The Baltimore Sun reported that "a coalition of religious groups has started an interfaith community development fund that will lend money to developers who build businesses, housing and community centers in needy neighborhoods throughout the region... The nonprofit Faith Fund has raised $750,000 to address a longtime regional conundrum - affordable housing tends to lie inside the city limits, while new jobs cluster in the far-flung suburbs. The organization hopes the loan pool will grow to as much as $20 million in as little as five years... The organization includes representatives from across the faith spectrum, including Catholic, Jewish, United Methodist, Islamic and Quaker groups, as well as the Baltimore Regional Partnership. Its new executive director, the Rev. Kent Marcoux, is an Episcopal priest... The Faith Fund received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and raised the rest of its start-up money from religious groups."