Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. (AEMI) closed its first social impact loan of the year with Mini City, a compassionate tech hub that helps marginalized, vulnerable and overlooked groups obtain vital documentation.

During her time volunteering in women’s shelters, Mini City Founder India Jha realized how something as simple as the lack of identification could prevent those experiencing homelessness from accessing the crucial assistance they need to move forward, including medical benefits, government benefits and pathways to employment.

India and her team created Mini City to help unhoused and housing insecure residents become document enabled. They offer application assistance for birth records and government benefits, and provide valuable data insights for cities, clinics, shelters and homeless care providers.

Mini City was awarded funding through the LIFT 2.0 initiative, which is a homeless response plan underway in the City of Atlanta, led by Partners for HOME. The funding will allow Mini City to deploy services at key partner sites and make 320 households document enabled. The Leverage Loan from AEMI allows Mini City to access funding upfront, meet a crucial need for Atlanta’s unhoused population and fulfill its largest project to date.

Created by Invest Atlanta, AEMI is a certified community development entity that fosters economic development, job creation and neighborhood revitalization in Atlanta’s underinvested communities. It specializes in gap financing for businesses and developers with large-scale projects, as well as small businesses, medium-sized companies and startups seeking low-cost financing or venture capital. Funding comes from private investors in exchange for tax breaks facilitated through the Federal New Markets Tax Credits Program.