{"id":18890,"date":"2019-04-06T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/breaking-the-cycle-of-disinvestment-in-lower-income-communities\/"},"modified":"2019-04-06T08:00:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T16:00:53","slug":"breaking-the-cycle-of-disinvestment-in-lower-income-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/breaking-the-cycle-of-disinvestment-in-lower-income-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking The Cycle Of Disinvestment In Lower-Income Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Claire Trageser<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Project Reo Collective is a coffee shop in San Diego’s Paradise Hills neighborhood that had trouble getting a bank loan to expand after a year of operation.<\/p>\n

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Claire Trageser\/KPBS<\/p>\n

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Claire Trageser\/KPBS<\/p>\n

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It’s not uncommon for people who want to start businesses in lower-income neighborhoods to have trouble getting bank loans. But increasingly, there are investors looking specifically to help businesses in those areas, with the aim of reversing the cycle of disinvestment. <\/p>\n

“There’s always reasons to say no to a borrower. We are looking for reasons to say yes,” says Lauren Grattan, a founder of the San Diego-based investment company Mission Driven Finance<\/a>. She explained that her company doesn’t look at personal credit scores. “We instead look at the validity of the business and how well can you repay from the business earnings.”<\/p>\n

Her company’s goal is to fill the gap between more traditional profit-motivated investing and philanthropy that focuses on economic development. <\/p>\n

One business that could have used help like this is Project Reo Collective<\/a>, a coffee shop in Paradise Hills, a lower-income neighborhood of San Diego. <\/p>\n

The coffee shop is situated in a small strip mall near a Mexican restaurant and a cell phone store. On most days, the cafe is filled with people working on laptops or hanging out while drinking Mexican mochas or lavender lemonades.<\/p>\n