If everything goes according to plan, the East River DevelopmentAlliance, a community development organization headquartered inLong Island City, N.Y., will open the first minority-owned creditunion in the New York City borough of Queens this April.

The ERDA Federal Credit Union will also be the first creditunion chartered during the Obama administration and the firstcredit union chartered in New York State in a decade, theorganizers said.

In order to build excitement for the new CU and to finish offthe last of its financial requirements, the organizers have mounteda campaign to get 90 people or institutions during a 90-day periodto donate at least $1,000 apiece to the effort. The credit unionhas already raised $49,000 from 29 donors and has 44 day left, asof this writing, to raise the remaining $46,000 to meet theself-imposed deadline.

Donors to the 90-day campaign effort include the United NationsFCU, Bethpage FCU, Melrose Credit Union, First American FCU,AmeriCU, Sperry Associates FCU, University of Wisconsin OshkoshCredit Union, Delaware Police FCU, Visions FCU and the New YorkCredit Union Foundation.

The effort has also received organizational, educational andtechnical expertise and assistance from the Brooklyn CooperativeCredit Union and the National Federation of Community DevelopmentCredit Unions, the organization said.

“Chartering of new credit unions has unfortunately become a rareevent-only two new federal charters this year, both of them CDCUs.Therefore, for the CDCU movement, this is all the more reason tocelebrate ERDA's accomplishment and congratulate them on the yearsof hard work that they put into this effort,” federation CEO CliffRosenthal said when the credit union's successful charter wasannounced in December 2009.

Bishop Mitchell Taylor, is senior pastor of the Center of HopeInternational, a nondenominational church neighboring the publichousing units where many of the ERDA FCU”s founding members live.He is also ERDA's founder and CEO. He said ERDA had always intendedto offer residents in the areas its serves a credit union as ameans of economically empowering themselves.

ERDA first organized residents to push for a bank branch, whichthey obtained in a nearby community, Taylor explained, but ERDA hadalways had a vision of a financial cooperative, a credit union, toserve as an economic empowerment vehicle for the residents.

“There is just a difference in owning the financialinstitution,” Taylor said, adding that his father had been a memberof a credit union in a nearby church and that had introduced him tothe idea and benefits of a credit union. It's all part of bringingchange, he said, “not from outside in but from the inside out.”

“ERDA is dedicated to making public housing developments placesof opportunity and neighborhoods which house a positive vision ofthe future for the people who live here. The establishment of thisfinancial cooperative, owned by residents, is a crucial element tomake resident empowerment and ownership real.” said Taylor. “Theopening of ERDA FCU in April will mark the next phase of ERDA'swork for change, a model for every public housing neighborhood inNew York City,” he added.

And Taylor described a series of public housing projects anddevelopments that need changing. According to ERDA, the areas fromwhich the credit union will draw its members contains three largepublic housing projects: the Woodside, Ravenswood, Astoria andQueensbridge Houses. Queensbrige is the largest public housingdevelopment in the country. It spans six-square blocks, includes 96buildings and is home to more than 10,000 residents. Ravenswood,Astoria and Woodside Houses are home to an additional 15,000residents.

The average income of households in the communities is slightlymore than half the average household income for New York City as awhole

To help organize such a large area, Taylor said he conceived ofERDA as an organization of organizations, that he and the otherfounding organizers built the organization out of contacts withtenant organizations, small businesses in the area, neighborhoodassociations and others. Since its founding five years ago, ERDAhas launched an effort to help young people from the projectsattend and graduate from college, help local resident fill out taxreturns and obtain the earned income tax credits for which they maybe eligible and create an adult education center to prepareresidents for jobs. All of which, Taylor said, dovetailed well withthe mission of the credit union.

“Five years ago, this whole area just had no financialinstitutions other than the check casher on the corner,” he said“We looked at that and said that has to change.”

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