CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kurt Treu, U.S. Bank Cleveland market president, today announced that U.S. Bank will invest $2 million dollars in Cleveland’s Village Capital Corporation (VCC), a subsidiary of Neighborhood Progress, Inc., to help address Cleveland’s foreclosure epidemic and affordable housing issues. According to Social Impact Study: 2007, Cleveland has the sixth highest rate of foreclosures in the nation with a current inventory of over 9,000 vacant units.

Treu, who joined the board of directors for Village Capital Corporation earlier this year, said, “U.S. Bank is committed to Cleveland and is proud to invest in and partner with VCC to provide solutions to combat our area’s vacant and abandoned housing crisis.”

Linda Warren, president of Village Capital said, “We thank U.S. Bank and the support of both Kurt Treu and Patricia Ramsey, who heads U.S. Bank’s Cleveland community development team. These funds will go a long way in helping us to meet our neighborhood revitalization efforts currently taking place to return market confidence, eliminate blight and restore and preserve existing property values.”

Warren said the decline in Cleveland’s housing sales and values and increased economic hardships has influenced how VCC is responding to the market. Its $24 million fund has become a critical component of Cleveland’s Community Reinvestment Strategy to provide affordable, market rate housing and retail development that can help grow Cleveland’s tax base. “Buckeye, Detroit Shoreway, Fairfax, Glenville, Slavic Village and Tremont are particularly economically distressed, and VCC is leading a collaborative effort with the City, several foundations, Community Development Corporations and area lenders to impact approximately 750 homes in these neighborhoods over the next three years. Our goal is to help 300 families from losing their homes through counseling for foreclosure prevention, demolish 300 currently vacant and blighted structures not suitable for rehab, and redevelop 150 currently vacant structures for homeownership.”

Warren explained, “Our mission is to invest in projects that generate economic and social benefits for Cleveland residents while also improving our current housing situation. In the process, we aim to attract private investment to the City that results in an increase in market rate housing that will achieve economic diversity and enhance environmental conditions for future development.” Treu added that U.S. Bank will continue to step to the plate to provide financial literacy programs for many in the community.

Village Capital Corporation (VCC), a nonprofit loan fund established in 1991, has invested in more than 110 projects, 2,300 units of housing, and 760,000 square feet of retail and office space. For more information about VCC, visit its website at www.neighborhoodprogress.org or call 216-830-2770.

U.S. Bank currently employs 1,100 employees in Northeast Ohio and has 110 branches.

U.S. Bancorp, with $247 billion in assets, is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the 6th largest commercial bank in the United States as of September 30, 2008. The company operates 2,556 banking offices and 4,903 ATMs, and provides a comprehensive line of banking, brokerage, insurance, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services products to consumers, businesses and institutions. Visit U.S. Bancorp on the web at www.usbank.com.

U.S. Bank Media Relations
Lisa H. Clark, 608-877-7517
fax: 608-877-0882 (please note new fax number)
pager: 888-437-8620
email: lisa.clark2@usbank.com