Featured photo: Metro Community Development Board Member Rafael Christopher Turner, CEO of Metro Community Development Brian Glowiak, Director of Operations Angie Morey and Angela Lots-executive director of Faith Foundation. (Metro Community Development is the fiduciary for Lots’ C.S. Mott Foundation Grant.)
Written by Tanya Terry
Metro Community Development is starting their 30th year in operation, and recently had a strolling open house to celebrate this milestone. The organization was formed in August of 1992 and renovated a beautiful building at 1174 Robert T. Longway Blvd., which they actually moved into in January of this year.
For the event, food was provided by the Twisted Burger Food Truck and Spectacular Spudz.
First time home buyers are one of the many focus areas of Metro Community Development.
A house on Garland, just south of Welch was at one time a Genesee County Land Bank house. Metro guided the family to the Land Bank to buy the lot in December of 2020. The family redeveloped the lot and put a basketball court in it. It became the center of the neighborhood.
“You have an eyesore, blighted house,” said Brian Glowiak, CEO of Metro Community Development.
“Now, it’s renovated,” Glowiak added. “Now you’ve got more stability in that community. If you think about stabilizing the community, how important that is, in terms of having people who are actually home owners in the community, having a vested interest in their house and maintaining it, adds to the stability as well. That’s part of our mission.”
Several years ago, Metro Community Development also became the lead agency for the Continuum of Care (COC). So, they are the lead agency for administering the majority of the HUD grants for homelessness in Genesee County. They work with all the social service agencies that are working to address homelessness and alleviate homelessness. As the fiduciary with HUD, they administer grants to Shelter of Flint, GCARD (The Genesee County Community Action Resource Department), Genesee Health System and other organizations. Metro works to compile the application every year that’s roughly about $2.25 million to bring federal funds into this community to help combat homelessness.
Individuals also seek creative capital solutions from Metro Community Development.
“We’re not a traditional lender,” Glowiak said.
“We’re not the bank with franchises on the corner,” Glowiak added. “So, we’re willing to take and able to take more risks as a community development financial institution.”
Metro serves individuals who may not have bank accounts or excellent credit ratings, but who are starting a business, operating a business or expanding a business. These individuals typically have capital and can demonstrate they have the ability to be able to pay back a loan, though Glowiak said they realize every loan does have some risk associated with it.
Community development financial institutions are created by the U.S. Treasury in order to serve underserved communities.
Metro is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank System of Indianapolis. The membership allows them to on a yearly basis access up to $300,000 in free funds to distribute to low income home owners to improve their homes. This money is mostly used on roofs, siding, windows, doors or water heaters. There is up to $7,500 is available for each house.
“We can access another $300,000, and that’s $10,000 per household if it’s either for low income senior citizens or if there’s a disabled person in the household,” Glowiak informed.
This money can be used for aids to mobility. This could include ramps, roll-in showers, laundry rooms or bathrooms on the main floor or lowering counter tops or cabinets.
“This is not a loan. This is an award to a homeowner to improve their house. We’ve also worked out arrangements with one particular bank; we can take a portion of their allocation, their $300,000 for each program. This is competitive throughout Michigan and Indiana with other organizations like us that are in the federal home loan bank system. So, they open up the program typically in March, and by June, all the funds are exhausted. The goal is to use our entire $600,000 allocation, take a portion we get from other banks and invest it into this community.”
Metro has distributed over $1 million throughout Flint and Genesee County specifically to help homeowners improve their homes.
Metro Community Development has recently helped provide creative capital solutions to businesses such as Hoffman’s Deco Deli & Café, Glam Box Boutique and Flint Hard Cider.
Glowiak said the primary clients on the business side for loans are women, people of color or veterans. These groups make up almost 60% of the clients served every year.
According to Glowiak, last year Metro loaned out a little over $1.3 million and it was responsible for retaining 226 jobs.
For details on Metro Community Development, visit https://metrocommunitydevelopment.com/.
