secondary financing mechanism for community investments, and began work on a model bank line of credit to a CDLF and a seed fund for newly- established CDLFs. The emergence of the NACDLF is a sign that the community investment movement is coming of age. No doubt more time must pass before these are accepted as "mainstream investments" by institutional portfolio and pension fund managers—and investors will always confront some challenging choices between indiscriminate profit maximization and social commitment—^but thousands of individuals and institutions are making community investment commitments, and a successful record is building fast. Community investment funds have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to make investment capital serve those in greatest need, while fulfilling their obligations to their investors. There should no longer be any doubt that community investment is not only an important frontier of the social investment movement—a unique response to critical social problems, and an affirmation of our best visions and values—but also a reasonable, financially responsible alternative to investment in traditional securities. # South Atlanta Land Trust In their first week of residence, the young family who purchased the first house developed by the South Atlanta Land Trust (SALT) had 49 people ring their doorbell to ask how they could get such a home. With help from the Institute for Conunu- nity Economics' (ICE) Revolving Loan Fund, SALT is working to reverse a decades-long process of deterioration that changed South Atlanta from a secure neighborhood of 700 owner-occupied homes to a poorer community with fewer than 500 homes and less than 40% owner-occupancy. ICE loans enabled SALT to acquire land and renovate houses, to move eight houses slated for demolition in an airport expansion to vacant lots in the neighborhood, and to purchase an apartment building for conversion to a cooperative. With these loans, SALT leveraged Community Development Block Grant funds and established a credit history that made commercial bank financing possible. Commitments have now been received from local banks and the Georgia Housing Finance Agency. Cooperative Home Care Associates Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) is a home health care agency in the Bronx organized as a worker cooperative. CHCA's 100 home health care aides are predominantly women of color. Twenty aides joined the cooperative by spring of 1986, with a goal of 50 new members by fall. CHCA is unique in many ways: (1) it provides low-income people with the chance to share in the rights and responsibilities of cooperative ownership of their workplace; (2) its presence has helped raise wages in a poorly-paying sector of the health care business; and (3) it is committed to providing training and career opportunities. The Industrial Cooperative Association's (ICA) Revolving Loan Fund provided assistance to the co-op in the form of a $50,000 subordinated loan, which helped to attract an additional $325,000 in financing. As a development lender, ICA also provides technical assistance and intensive monitoring to the cooperative on an on-going basis. Homesteader takes turn at cinder block at housing project in New York's Lower East Side. Page 17
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