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ProsperUs tells council it’s targeting more capital to Inkster after finding only 5% of mission lending reaches 'Out Wayne'
Summary
ProsperUs CEO Paul Jones told the council that mission-driven lenders have directed only about 5% of capital to communities outside Detroit in Wayne County and outlined ProsperUs’s local training, technical assistance and lending activity, including two loans totaling $100,000 that ProsperUs says created five jobs.
Paul Jones, CEO of ProsperUs, presented the organization's approach to supporting entrepreneurship and economic mobility in Inkster and Out Wayne.
Jones said ProsperUs combines community listening, entrepreneur training, technical assistance (TA) and direct capital to spur neighborhood businesses. He told council ProsperUs launched an Inkster training site in 2023 with 62 participants and described outcomes: 14 TA projects providing accounting and marketing support (estimated at $35,000 in grants), distribution of 10 laptops and two direct loans totaling $100,000 that ProsperUs said resulted in about five jobs.
Jones emphasized an equity gap he framed as the '5%' problem: after surveying mission-based lenders in Wayne County, he said roughly 95% of mission lending was going to the city of Detroit and only about 5% to communities in Out Wayne such as Inkster. "That magic number for tonight is 5%...Of all the capital that has been distributed from different mission based lenders... only 5% has gone to Outweighn," Jones said, and he urged local stakeholders to support efforts that raise that share.
Jones said ProsperUs aims to expand its pipeline and hoped to lend $500,000 over the next couple of years to leverage further matched investments from other lenders.
What happens next: ProsperUs will continue training and lending operations in Inkster and encouraged collaboration with local institutions, including the credit union the council heard from earlier.
Representative quote: "We're usually the first money in, but attracts a lot more resources," Jones said of ProsperUs lending in neighborhoods.
