On Your Behalf—October 2008

General Conference Calls for Investments in Native American Communities

In 2004, General Conference adopted a resolution entitled Economic Development for Native American People (#215). This resolution recognized the many serious economic challenges facing Native American communities and reservations across the U.S., such as high unemployment, widespread poverty, inadequate health care, lack of a tax base and lack of equity for investment.

Slightly revised and readopted in 2008, resolution #215 calls upon United Methodists to work toward greater non-gambling-related economic development on reservations and within Native American communities. The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits (General Board) is specifically urged to invest funds in Native American financial institutions and community organizations.

One of the General Board’s Native American investments is receiving special attention this month. On October 17, the Native American Health Center of Oakland, California, formally dedicated its Seven Directions Mixed-Use Healthcare and Affordable Housing Project. The $14 million, 21,000-square-feet, community-based center provides medical care, dental care and outpatient mental health services. In addition, there are 36 affordable-housing units located on the upper floors.

Founded in 1972 in San Francisco, the Native American Health Center was established to meet the health care needs of one of the largest Native American communities in the United States. Today, it serves more than 15,000 patients a year representing a variety of ethnicities and communities.

In 2007, by providing a $10 million loan, the General Board joined a number of public and private partners helping to finance the project. Additional information on the Native American Health Center and the Seven Directions project is available at www.nativehealth.org.

Another General Board investment in Native American communities occurred in 2005, when the General Board purchased a $1.8 million, 30-year loan to help the Friendship House American Indian Healing Center enlarge its community facilities. With its emphasis on Native American culture and values, the Friendship House offers addiction treatment, transitional housing and job training programs primarily to Native Americans located in California and nearby states. Partly through the General Board’s loan, the Friendship House was able to replace a smaller, older facility. The new Friendship House, located in San Francisco’s Mission District, is a four-story, 26,000-square-feet facility with 80 available beds for residential treatment. It also has a sweat lodge, basketball courts and a great hall, which is used for events and meetings.

The Friendship House loan was facilitated through the Low Income Investment Fund, a not-for-profit community development financial institution dedicated to providing capital and technical assistance to help build child care and educational facilities, affordable housing and other community revitalization programs in low income communities.

Additional information on the Friendship House is available at www.friendshiphousesf.org/index.html.

The loans to the Seven Directions project and the Friendship House are a part of the General Board’s Positive Social Purpose Investment Program. This program dates back to 1990, when the General Board committed $25 million for affordable-housing projects across the U.S. Today, commitments total more than $1.7 billion and include not only affordable housing, but also community development projects and microfinance lending opportunities.

Investments in the Positive Social Purpose Investment Program typically take the form of mortgage loans or mortgage loan participations from independent third parties referred to as “intermediaries.” These intermediaries (usually community based nonprofit organizations) loan money to community development financial institutions, community development real estate institutions and developers needing funds either to build or renovate affordable housing or fund community development projects. Investments have competitive, risk-adjusted rates of return.

In 2007, the General Board made 90 such loans, totaling more than $125 million. These loans helped fund more than 4,000 affordable-housing units and four charter schools.

Housing remains the centerpiece of the Positive Social Purpose Investment Program. The Church adopted its first detailed statement on housing in the U.S. in 1988. Amended and readopted in 2000 and again in 2008, this resolution, Housing in the U.S.A., affirms the critical need for “adequate housing at affordable costs” and urges all United Methodists “to strengthen every housing ministry taking place within their communities by providing additional financial, technical, counseling, and spiritual resources.”

The General Board is firmly dedicated to its Positive Social Purpose Investment Program. Through it, nearly 30,000 affordable housing units in all 50 states have been built, rehabilitated or preserved. Projects such as health care centers, homeless shelters and charter schools have been built, and more than 1 million people have been served by microfinance lending arrangements.

Resolution 215 reminds us that “the need for economic development and growth is critically acute in most Native American communities across the United States.” In an effort to respond to the call of this resolution, the General Board will continue to look for investment opportunities on reservations and within Native American communities.