Training and Events
Upcoming Events
- May 22: Supporting Inclusive Communities Through Fair Housing Planning - Brooklyn, NY
- May 23: Supporting Inclusive Communities Through Fair Housing Planning , Day 2- Brooklyn, NY
- Jun 11: Supporting Inclusive Communities Through Fair Housing Planning - Chicago, IL
- Jun 12: Supporting Inclusive Communities Through Fair Housing Planning, Day 2 - Chicago, IL
- Sep 10: Supporting Inclusive Communities Through Fair Housing Planning - Charleston, SC
Washington, DC – On September 13, dozens of members of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) came to Washington DC for the White House American Economic Competitiveness Forum on Housing. At this forum, over a hundred community advocates came together with administration officials at the White House to discuss solutions to America’s housing crisis.
“This was an encouraging discussion on the necessary steps to address America’s continuing housing crisis. Until we fix the broken housing market, we will not be able to fix our economy,” said NCRC President and CEO John Taylor. “We commend the White House for convening this substantive dialogue with on-the-ground local community leaders on the solutions it will take to bring our communities, the housing market the economy back to full strength.”
“Key to immediate progress is the role of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Taylor. “Because FHFA Acting Director Ed DeMarco has not shown a willingness to work constructively with the administration and on principal reductions, it is imperative to do a recess appointment to fill the FHFA Director position.”
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to come to the White House and share our priorities and ideas for solutions to the problems our communities are facing,” said Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida President and CEO Arden Shank. “The White House heard firsthand about the need for continued commitment to neighborhood stabilization in South Florida and nationwide. Neighborhood stabilization efforts will need additional support through another round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.”
“The forum was a constructive conversation with the White House and administration officials, which we were pleased to be a part of,” said Chicanos Por La Causa President and CEO Edmundo Hidalgo. “We emphasized the critical importance of stabilizing and rebuilding the neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. We need to focus on place-based solutions, recognizing that every community is different."
“It is positive that the White House is engaging local community advocates on the issue of the housing crisis,” said Nevada Fair Housing Center President and CEO Gail Burks. “To fix this crisis, it is critical to get homeowners into sustainable loans through mortgage modifications and refinances. As long as the serious negative equity problem continues, our economy won’t recover, and homeowners will struggle. If the administration would use the tools that they have available in the tool chest today, that would go a long way.”
“This was an important platform for local community advocates and service providers to voice their priorities to the Administration,” said Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP) Executive Director Mark Seifert. “We made clear the importance of prioritizing housing counseling and foreclosure prevention in our communities in Ohio and elsewhere.”
“This meeting was a valuable chance to speak directly with the White House about critical housing issues facing communities, particularly communities of color,” said Sarah Ludwig, Co-Director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP). “Our communities and neighborhoods remain in serious distress because of the housing crisis, and we need the administration to commit to tackling these problems comprehensively.”
About the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC):
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is an association of more than 600 community-based organizations that promote access to basic banking services, including credit and savings, to create and sustain affordable housing, job development, and vibrant communities for America's working families.
An investigation by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) discovered that a majority of the top 50 FHA lenders have instituted policies that limit access to credit to working families in low- and moderate-income communities, and in communities of color, the very same communities that have been most harmed by the greed and malfeasance of Wall Street and the financial industry. The investigation's findings were confirmed in consultation with FHA officials, best practice discussions with industry professionals, and by NCRC's work directly with consumers and our member organizations around the country.
NCRC's investigation reveals that too many of the country's largest financial institutions are refusing to lend under the FHA loan program to consumers with credit scores between 580 and 640, despite the fact that FHA policy establishes a 100% guarantee for refinance and home purchase loans to a credit score of 580 for borrowers with a 3.5% downpayment. Our investigations shows the majority of top lenders have minimum credit score requirements of 620 or 640.
Download the PDF - FHA White Paper 12.8.10 
As Expected, Effort Underway To Weaken Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
NCRC's John Taylor Says Financial Lobby Strangling Reform
Washington, DC – John Taylor, CEO and President of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, released this statement today about the markup of legislation by the House Financial Services' Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Two bills before the Committee, introduced by U.S. Representatives Sean Duffy and Spencer Bachus, weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by standing in the way of vital consumer protection measures and changing the bureau's leadership.
"As most Americans continue to feel the dire impacts of the Great Recession, financial lobbyists are strangling the life out of financial reform. Wall Street got us to this place, and now its lobbyists are rewriting history, blaming anyone but the investment banks and lenders for our economic problems. Even before the ink dries on the bill creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the lobbyists are tearing it up. Incredibly, these Congressional proposals will help them do that, ignoring the mistakes of the past. NCRC members warned this would happen, that attempts would be made to weaken the first ever consumer loan protection office that should have been more powerful to begin with. This effort should be given no time and rejected out of hand."
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition yesterday joined dozens of other consumer, civil rights and labor organizations opposing the Bachus and Duffy bills.
Community Reinvestment Act Mitigates Damage to Communities Caused by Financial Crisis
A new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition finds that Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulated lenders avoided significant decreases in lending accompanied by the current foreclosure crisis and severe recession. The study compared home and small businesses lending and bank branching in two major metropolitan areas (Washington DC and Houston) over the volatile time period of 2006 through 2009. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requires banks to serve communities, particularly low- and moderate-income communities, and by statute requires the lending be safe and sound.
Washington, DC -- Today, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) said that new data released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council showed continued constriction of credit, particularly for low- and moderate income communities and communities of color, and significant disparities in lending by race.
The volume of home lending was 7.1 million loans in 2011, the lowest since 1995, according to the Federal Reserve Board. Lower income borrowers, borrowers purchasing homes in lower income tracts, and borrowers purchasing homes in predominantly minority tracts experienced large drops in home purchase lending. Credit scores for borrowers are the highest in twelve years, indicating a significant contraction in lending.
“While national indicators suggest that a housing recovery is in its early stages, clearly the housing crisis continues to have a disproportionate adverse impact on low and moderate income people and communities of color,” said NCRC President and CEO John Taylor. “The housing recovery might be occurring for some, but this data suggests that it is not occurring for underserved populations.”
Lending in distressed census tracts, or those deemed distressed by the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, remains depressed and declined by a larger percentage since 2010 than in non-distressed census tracts. Highly distressed tracts suffered lending declines of 13.8 percent compared to 3.3 percent for non-distressed tracts. The overall decline in lending was 7.2 percent from 2010 to 2011.
“This latest data shows a number of very disturbing trends,” said Taylor. “It has gotten even harder for people of color and people of low- to moderate- income to access credit in the financial markets. In addition, refinancing out of higher interest rate loans to loans with historically low rates in today’s market is much harder for minorities, who are experiencing much higher denial rates in the refinance market. This impedes recovery from the foreclosure crisis for the hardest hit communities.”
About 40 percent of African-American applicants and 32 percent of Hispanic white applicants are denied refinance loans compared to 20 percent for white non-Hispanics. When borrower and lender factors are accounted for, the rejection rates for conventional refinance loans decline to 32.1 percent, 26.6 percent, and 20 percent for African-Americans, Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic whites, respectively. Even after controlling for various factors, the rejection rates for minorities remain significantly higher than for whites.
“The point is, those working-class people and minorities who have already been through the mortgage gauntlet are finding the bar raised even higher as they try to refinance into more affordable loans,” said Taylor. “This is patently unfair and un-American.”
Minorities also remain much more likely to receive FHA loans. While FHA has preserved access for traditionally underserved borrowers during the crisis, FHA loans are more expensive than conventional loans. Stakeholders must take steps to reduce the disproportionate incidence of FHA lending for minorities. For home purchase lending, 21.6 percent and 78.4 percent of African-American borrowers received conventional and government-backed loans, respectively. For Hispanic whites, the split was 29.2 percent and 70.8 percent and for white non-Hispanics, the split was 53.3 and 46.7 percent in 2011. The incidence of government-backed loans for all races declined from 2010 to 2011 but declined to a greater extent for non-Hispanic whites.
The top 10 lenders had about 37 percent of all HMDA-reportable originations in 2011, about the same as 2006. Lending by the 10 largest lenders fell more in 2011 from 2010 than lending by other institutions (17 percent compared to 2.6 percent).
Taylor concludes, “Too big to fail may also mean too big to lend. Regulators need to ensure that the market remains competitive and robust as we recover from this crisis.”
About the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC):
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition is an association of more than 600 community-based organizations that promote access to basic banking services, including credit and savings, to create and sustain affordable housing, job development, and vibrant communities for America's working families.
An Axe to the Heart of Consumer Protection: Politics As Usual Threaten to Undermine Meaningful Consumer Protection
Consumer Groups Call on Congress to Cease Efforts Aimed to Undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Washington, DC – As the House Financial Services Committee prepares to meet this Thursday to vote on newly introduced bills aimed to weaken and strangle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, John Taylor, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, along with dozens of other consumer, civil rights and labor organizations call for immediate rejection of the effort:
"When it comes down to protecting consumers from the very unscrupulous acts of Wall Street that led this nation into one of the worse financial calamities in history, Congress should drop the politics as usual and do what's right. If these bills are passed, then Wall Street will celebrate another win, while consumers will be left to pick up the pieces, again.
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be weakened by a muddled and drawn-out decision making if it's left to a 5-member commission. Giving veto power to the gang of bank regulators that failed consumers before is like letting a skulk of foxes inside the henhouse. These proposals are not death by a thousand cuts, they are an axe to the very heart of meaningful consumer protection.
"The truth is we've already been down this road of leaving too much power in the hands of banks and Wall Street. It's time to relinquish this power and have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau do what is was designed to do: protect consumers," said Taylor.
Today, the House Financial Services Committee will consider the two bills introduced last week by U.S. Representatives Sean Duffy and Spencer Bachus. Rep. Duffy's bill grants sweeping veto authority over CFPB's consumer protection decisions to the existing bank regulators. Rep. Bachus' bill eliminates the CFPB's Director and replaces the position with a 5-member commission.
In this letter to the committee, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition joined with other consumer groups to call for immediate dismissal of the bills in the upcoming hearing.
