The U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund has announced more than $195.4 million in grants to help boost lending to and investments in primary care practices in low-income areas nationwide.

Grants were awarded to a hundred and eighty-five organizations to increase their lending and investments in low-income and economically distressed communities, including Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. The grants include more than $160.8 million in financial assistance (FA) and technical assistance (TA) awards to a hundred and fifty-two organizations through the FY2014 round of the CDFI Program, and more than $12.2 million in FA and TA awards to thirty-three organizations through the Native American CDFI Assistance Program. Twelve of the awardees also received $22.4 million in healthy food financing initiative awards.

Grantees include the New York City-based Primary Care Development Corporation, which was awarded $2 million in support of its efforts to attract private-sector investors and provide affordable financing for community health centers and other primary care practices seeking to build new, expanded, or renovated facilities serving low-income communities. Today, more than sixty million Americans — insured and uninsured — lack access to quality primary care, and although efforts to expand and improve primary care nationwide are under way, access to affordable capital remains a barrier. To date, PCDC has financed more than one hundred primary care projects valued at nearly $500 million, leveraging more than $5 in private dollars for every $1 of public investment.

"With support from the CDFI Fund, we can provide greater access to capital to community health centers and other primary care practices to expand in underserved communities," said PCDC chief executive Ronda Kotelchuck. "This support could not have come at a more critical time, as we work to reform the health system and meet the growing demand for quality primary care from millions of patients."