ABOUT US

The Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union is an Economic Justice Ministry within the Diocese of Los Angeles. "Those who have, helping those who have not."

Originally funded by a grant from Episcopal Relief and Development in 1992, the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union in Los Angeles provides financial services in a professional, personal environment.

The Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union is a very diverse credit union with 40 percent of its membership being Hispanic, 20 percent African American, 20 percent Caucasian, and 10 percent of other ethnic groups.

We offer a full range of financial services to meet our members’ needs. We offer security, too. We are backed by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), meaning that every dollar you deposit with us up to $100,000 is fully insured.

The following article appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of The Episcopal News

Episcopal credit union: 14 years of ‘changing lives’

Urla Abrigo spends her days “seeing to it that the poor don’t get shut out of the business of money.”

As manager and chief executive officer of the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union (ECFCU), an economic justice ministry of the Diocese of Los Angles, Abrigo’s business is money — and teaching community groups “financial literacy,” creating jobs by extending small business loans, and even helping to extricate those trapped in payday lending schemes.

“Many of the loans we make are small loans. We don’t make any money on them, that’s why a lot of banks don’t make those kinds of loans,” Abrigo says. “But we do, because we know how they can change a person’s life.”

“We’ve been around 14 years and we’re still going strong,” she says of the agency created through an Episcopal Relief and Development grant in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots. With about $4.9 million in assets and about 479 loans — mostly auto — she regards the agency as “small” but is most troubled by the size of its membership.

Although there are approximately 70,000 Episcopalians in the six-county diocesan area, “only 2,400 belong to the credit union,” she observes. “We’re set up to help the Episcopal community when in need. This credit union is for the Episcopal Church and anyone attached to the diocese, any organization can become a part of us.”

“We are here and our members know we are here for them”

A $1,000 loan from ECFCU nine years ago helped propel Rocio Ramirez from selling craft items in MacArthur Park to operating her own catering business and training other culinary workers.

“The credit union gave me a loan for the crafts. From the profit I repaid the loan on time and used the rest to invest in tamales,” she recalled. “Ever since then, it’s been growing.”

“Without the Episcopal credit union it would have been nearly impossible for me to get a loan,” Ramirez, 48, said recently through an interpreter.

She began making her specialty — Acapulco-style tamales — and in 2001 she and a group of other street food vendors, aided by the credit union, the Institute for Urban Research and Development (www.iurd.org) and Los Angeles city departments, organized Mama’s Hot Tamales, an apprentice-operated business and job training restaurant.

“The credit union provided small business loans, checking accounts, and provided technical assistance regarding taxes and permits and other necessary documentation,” said Joe Colletti, who served as IURD executive director and is now executive director of Episcopal Economic Development.

“Rocio is a success story; she came to the program at the very beginning,” recalled Sandi Romero, who is “Mama” of Mama’s Hot Tamales, located at 2122 West Seventh Street in Los Angeles. “At the very beginning, the credit union was instrumental in getting money together for the initial start-up, business licenses, insurance, permits that were needed.”

Over time, Ramirez “became an American citizen, bought a home, and started a catering business. She still continues to be one of the most popular tamale makers of our program. She is an inspiration and a role model to help new people coming into the program,” Romero said.

Ramirez now teaches in the program, which trains workers for the food service industry, and is part of an ongoing neighborhood revitalization project (www.Re discover-MacArthur-Park.com) The restaurant is opening another “incubator” this summer, at 45 N. San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena, Colletti said. It will provide commercial food education and hands-on training needed for a career path in the culinary world.

Transformed space, transformed lives

Abrigo wants Episcopalians to know the credit union services are available diocesan-wide, not just in Echo Park, and that more churches should apply for loans.

“We have ATM cards and they can be used at many of the credit unions around the country and the world,” she said.

“We do small business loans up to $50,000,” she said. “Our churches that need loans don’t come to the credit union, but we can do church loans up to $25,000.”

The Rev. Juan Barragan, vicar of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Pico Rivera, says a $20,000 loan from the credit union helped remodel the mission congregation’s hall two years ago.

He is convinced the conversion of the hall and church grounds helped the phenomenal growth experienced. “There were about 14 people when I got there five years ago,” he recalled. “Now, we have over 250.”

Transforming the sacred space helped transform community, he said. “When we were planning to paint, the whole church showed up, with their own brushes, to paint. Entire families were painting the church, everybody was participating.”

The parish hall is used for lots of church and community-related activities, he said, adding that parishioners are encouraged to join the credit union.

The full-service institution also offers such financial assistance as low-interest bill consolidation, wire transfers, credit counseling, financial literacy courses, internet banking and bill pay, which Abrigo is trying to encourage members to use so it will be more cost-effective.

A volunteer income tax assistance program for low-income people averages about 16 to 20 clients per night on Tuesday and Thursday evenings during the pre-tax season. The credit union’s loan portfolio is about $3.1 million with an average of about 140 loans granted per year.

Acknowledging that we’re living in tough economic times, Abrigo offers hope. “There are a lot of programs coming up to help people. The one place that we know about for members running into problems is the Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Association, at 888. 995.HOPE. It’s a good place to go if you’re having problems with your mortgage.”

Low-interest bill consolidation loans can make the difference in a person’s life, she adds. “We have been assisting our members caught up in the payday lending scheme, helping them to pay off the loans,” she said. One member “borrowed $2,300 in 2005 and three years later, still owed $2,100 after paying $200 a month to the payday lender,” Abrigo said.

“We really try to encourage our members who have those loans to come to us and we give them an opportunity to have lower payments and an opportunity for that loan to be paid off. Some of those loans have interest rates of 300 to 400 percent. It’s a very sad situation when people get into that.”

The credit union still offers assistance to about 15 vendors through Mama’s Hot Tamales, Abrigo added.

“The credit union helped us to flourish and now we’re ready to expand,” Romero said. “My dream never really was to be ‘Mama’. I knew I loved helping people, and working in the community, but this really has been a dream come true.

“I’m really proud of the work we’ve been able to do here starting with vendors from the informal economy. By helping create Mama’s, [the credit union] has helped to revitalize the whole neighborhood and to bring it back to the way it used to be.

“Little by little, it’s coming back. We’re getting rid of crime and drugs. The park has turned around 100 percent from where it was when we first got here. We’re changing the community, one tamale at a time.”

Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union
840 Echo Park Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 482-2040 Ext. 254
(800) 366-1536 Ext. 254
FAX: (213) 977-9762
E-MAIL: creditunion@ladiocese.org