Marisa Calderón is the executive director of NCRC Community Development Fund, Inc., which provides loan capital to reduce the minority home access gap.

Marisa Calderón is a successful award-winning executive for her trajectory in the housing and financial services industries. Marisa is the executive director of NCRC Community Development Fund, Inc., a U.S. Treasury certified community development financial institution that provides loan capital to reduce the home ownership gap for minorities like Latinos.

We had the opportunity to talk with her and learn how her organization has worked for these purposes and how the Latino community is projected in this area.

Business Magazine: How did your organization NCRC Community Development Fund, Inc., work with the pandemic to help people in that situation special?

Marisa Calderón: NCRC Development Community Fund is a subsidiary of NCRC
and I’m very proud that we had the opportunity to participate as PPP lenders and we were able to provide assistance to the Latino minority. This allowed us to provide many resources and support to businesses that were struggling to emerge.

NM: What fundamental problems do minorities in America face in achieving that American dream of getting their own home?

MC: Speaking of Latinos in particular, that’s one of the main reasons why many Latinos come to this country and build their families for generations. They want to have their own home to have a better quality of life and the challenge is not is when there is the “appetite” for having a home … the challenge is with personal wealth, and having the resources to acquire a new home and understand how the financial system and credit works in the United States. At the time they arrived here as immigrants they did not have the knowledge on how to build their own credit and that becomes an impediment to qualify for a loan to buy a home, because they may have financial resources, but they don’t have that history of credit in a way that is valid here, which becomes a barrier.

NM: How can the inequality that is reflected with these minorities such as Latinos be solved?

MC: There are structural issues where intervention is needed, however, an aspect that I find and that is not structural or in need of intervention of the Government because it is simpler, it is diversify the real estate industry and finance. American corporations must have a business focus getting closer to recruiting human talent be thoughtful with consumers who they want to buy a house. We estimate that between now and the next 20 years, 70% of the demand to acquire a new house It will come from Latinos.

NM: What is the specific status of the Hispanic property owners? Has progress been made in recent years?

MC: We must speak of this in two ways, if we speak about pre-pandemic, the Latinos were responsible for 50% of the growth from buying a new home in the United States, and widely closed the gap of that post recession real estate. So there was this tremendous loss of wealth, two thirds of this capital to acquiring a home was lost to Latinos in this recession but then again it came back to emerge that “appetite” that I mentioned and others aspects such as multigenerational life, and thus, Latinos recovered in those terms of owning a home. Then the pandemic struck and it was difficult for Latinos particularly in terms of job losses, as many move into service jobs. So when for example the restaurants closed Latinos were left without the ability to pay their rent or mortgage; therefore there was an impact from the pandemic.

NM: Now speaking of the Joe Biden government, is there a change in the outlook for minorities especially Hispanics?

MC: I think it is clear that this administration is doing things that are a positive step forward for Latinos and other groups, for example, trying to protect DACA, which is very important for Latinos,
even if you are sheltered or not. Due to this policy, the proximity of those affected by it is high in this community. The need for a more comprehensive approach to immigration is more possible under this administration than in the previous one. There has certainly been a great focus on different forms of relief in these communities.

MC: I think it is clear that this administration is doing things that are a positive step forward for Latinos and other groups, for example, trying to protect DACA, which is very important for Latinos,
even if you are sheltered or not. Due to this policy, the proximity of those affected by it is high in this community. The need for a more comprehensive approach to immigration is more possible under this administration than in the previous one. There has certainly been a great focus on different forms of relief in these communities.