Equity Trust Fund Borrower Projects Centro Del Obrero - El Paso, TX
The
Hispanic residents of south-central El Paso live on the margin of the U.S.
- and beyond the margin of U.S. affluence. Average per capita income was
estimated in 1998 to be $3748. As a result of NAFTA, thousands have lost
jobs in a neighborhood that was once El Paso's garment district. Most have
very little formal education and little by way of English language skills.
The nonprofit Centro Obrero serves these residents - as a service provider,
advocate, and now, through its subsidiary, El Puente Community 
Development
Corporation, as a developer of economic opportunities. El Puente CDC sought
to buy a 40,000 square foot warehouse to house an ambitious range of programs,
including a crafts operation that 
would
provide jobs for immigrant workers and the operation of a trading company
that would import the products of Mexican artisans. A local bank agreed
to finance a major part of the $530,000 price, provided another lender would
finance the balance. The Equity Trust Fund agreed to be that other lender,
and has made the loan. Their loan from Equity Trust enabled them to purchase
the warehouse which now houses an ambitious range of programs providing
jobs for immigrant workers, including a crafts collective and a trading
company that imports the products of Mexican artisans.
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