Housing programs help FHLB connect with RiverHills Bank

One part of FHLB Cincinnati’s mission is to help members facilitate and expand housing finance and community investment. We work to maintain effective affordable housing and community investment programs, and offer voluntary contributions. Since 1990, FHLB Cincinnati has:

  • Awarded grants of more than $535 million to help construct 55,000 housing units through our competitive Affordable Housing Program.
  • Helped 30,000 residents of Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee purchase homes, with $146 million in grants from our Welcome Home Program for assistance with down payments and closing costs.
  • Distributed $40 million through voluntary programs to help nearly 8,000 Fifth District households cope with foreclosures, emergency repairs, accessibility and more.
  • Helped communities with infrastructure and other economic development projects by providing $2 billion through our Community Investment Cash Advance programs.

Each dollar from our housing programs finds its way out to Fifth District households through an FHLB Cincinnati member. Each year more than 200 members take part in one or more housing programs.

One of those is RiverHills Bank of Milford, Ohio. “We’re a tiny bank and we’re happy to be a tiny bank,” with about $150 million in assets, said President Brian Dunlap. But RiverHills is a big user of AHP, having worked to gain nearly $8.4 million in grants since 2013 to help build 676 units of affordable housing.

RiverHills handles construction and permanent lending for these projects, so it’s a profitable line of business. Participation in AHP makes those projects possible, he said, and it helps RiverHills fulfill a promise to their customers, that the bank will leverage their business to do good things in the community.

“We just believe that you can do really good things for people and make money at the same time, that they’re not mutually exclusive,” Mr. Dunlap said. “It’s a core belief of our ownership group and our board of directors that, again, we can go do these projects and also remain a profitable bank.”