For Everence Federal Credit Union, bringing banking services to Kensington is an act of faith

Take a statistical look at Kensington and you see a community where almost half the residents live below the poverty line.

This makes Kensington the poorest neighborhood in the nation’s poorest big city.

However, take a spiritual look at Kensington and that vision shifts to one of a community of hard-working residents doing their best but in need of financial services to do better. At least that’s the message according to Leonard Dow, vice president of community and church development for Indiana-based Everence, a Christian, member-owned financial services organization that includes a credit union.

“We chose Kensington intentionally,” said Dow, former pastor of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in the Northeast. “Kensington has a lot of challenges but it also has a good percentage of homeowners and small business.”

Five years ago Everence Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Lancaster, partnered with Esperanza Health Center, also a faith-based organization, and put its first local retail branch at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, in the health center’s newly rehabilitated medical building, to serve residents. The credit union, which has $423 million in assets, provides banking and insurance services but also works with its members to align their faith or values with their finances.

» READ MORE: ‘People can’t believe they’re in Kensington’ when they see new health center in historic bank

Now, the credit union is reaching out to small-business owners. Everence recently announced a community development investment partnership with Greenline Access Capital, which will provide loan preparation assistance to its clients: Latinos and immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Everence Community Investments will provide the loan while Everence Federal Credit Union will handle underwriting and administration.

“Banks don’t really want to do microloans, loans less than $50,000, because they are the most expensive to sustain,” said Greenline’s president and CEO, Kersy Azocar. “The borrowers are not really profitable.”

Health and wealth have become linked in the United States, with more than 60% of a person’s health outcomes influenced by financial well-being including income, health insurance, and stable housing.

“It was pretty bold [of Everence] to think about coming into Kensington when everything else seems to be closing up.”

From that perspective, it makes sense to put a credit union inside a community health center that serves a neighborhood teeming with unbanked residents facing high bank fees, predatory lenders, and a dwindling number of businesses. Those who stay are left with few trusted and knowledgeable people to turn to for answers to their financial questions.

“It was pretty bold [of Everence] to think about coming into Kensington when everything else seems to be closing up,” said Debra Ortiz-Vásquez, Esperanza’s director of Community Health and Wellness. “Finances are not something we talked about in the Latin community. Everence offers an opportunity to consult with someone in a friendly way. It feels less threatening.”

According to Morningstar, the number of faith-based funds is increasing as investors look at a fund’s investment values as well as its rate of return or ethical wealth. “Profits matter but not at the expense of the community,” Dow said.

Everence, in addition to its credit union, has a mutual fund, Praxis Mutual Funds, with $2.5 billion in assets. As a 2023 Morningstar report noted, “Faith-based investing, a distinctive approach that integrates financial goals with religious and ethical principles, has emerged as a noteworthy avenue for investors seeking to align their portfolios with their deeply held convictions.”

“I’m not a traditional banker. I’m self-taught,” said Kevin M. Gil, Everence’s financial wellness manager. “I come from a traditional Hispanic family where money is not talked about. It’s not a common practice.”

“I come from a traditional Hispanic family where money is not talked about.”

Gil’s mother is Puerto Rican and his father was an undocumented immigrant and entrepreneur from the Dominican Republic who was deported while Gill was in middle school. He said it’s exactly this background that helps him understand his clients.

Everence, which originated in 1945 to serve the Mennonite Church, announced its new small-business loan service was “part of a larger Everence commitment to grow who, how, and where it serves people who welcome faith and values-based financial services.“

The credit union offers savings, checking, credit cards, loans, financial wellness education, and insurance products for traditional and nontraditional borrowers.

In Kensington, it is serving the neighborhood by offering nontraditional services such as loans to undocumented immigrants who have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). An ITIN is provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure undocumented immigrants without a Social Security number still pay taxes.

“Not every institution accepts ITIN status. We do,” Dow said.

Now, Gil’s office is on the mezzanine level of the former Kensington Trust Co., which once provided banking services when Kensington was in its heyday but today is at the center of the city’s opioid epidemic.

“Kevin knew the community and he knew the challenges,” Ortiz-Vásquez said.

The first member of the credit union was an African immigrant and Kensington resident eager to purchase a home, Gil said. “He said he knew how to do it in his country but not in America.”

Gil spent years counseling him, and he now has more than enough saved for a substantial down payment. “He actually decided that he would wait and continue to save,” Gill said.

For Greenline’s Azocar, the first successful loan applicant is a restaurateur looking to expand from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“Ideally they will stay in the community,” Azocar said.