In the News

John Taylor, President and Founder of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, recently complemented BBVA Compass in light of its positive Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance ratings from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. BBVA Compass’ recognition stems from their dedication to servicing the credit needs in low-moderate income communities and their commitment to community development.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo unveiled a new housing that would undermine the current successful affordable housing goals that’s been in place since 1922. Civil Rights advocates, including the National Community Reinvestment Coalition released joint statement expressing their disapproval of the senator’s new plan.

The impact of redlining — in which lower-income families had been denied access to credit based on their race — stamps through New Orleans’ geography. It built the city’s modern-day housing market, and the areas defined by its lines still suffer from its invention.

Josh Silver, NCRC’s Senior Advisor, participated in a seminar with other experts in bank lending behaviors to discuss how banks impact the low and moderate income people and how changes in the CRA could help these communities.

NCRC has pushed banks to provide $84 billion in lending and philanthropy for low-to-moderate-income communities and communities of color.

The senator’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act contains a provision that appears to address historic redlining policies. Just don’t call it “reparations,” experts say.

Curbed, December 11, 2018: Elizabeth Warren doubles down on affordable housing legislation Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) doubled down on her strategy to fix America’s housing crisis. Along with Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), she introduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act to the House, a companion to a Senate bill Warren

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition says the CRA has led to trillions of dollars in credit to communities that otherwise might be ignored by the banking sector.

“In general, we’ve been supportive of changing the assessment areas to account for today’s technology and banking system but we have not been in favor of allowing more banks to get more CRA credit,” Jesse Van Tol, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said in an interview.

In the southern part of Arlington County, more than half of the households rent, which means many families could be displaced, Jesse Van Tol, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, told The Washington Post.

John Taylor, the President and Founder of NCRC, received the 2018 Award of Excellence from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA). PHFA works to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for older adults, lower-income families and people with special housing needs. The award, presented Nov. 13, 2018 at a PHFA event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,

More than half of the households in those areas rent rather than own, putting them at high risk of eventually being priced out, said Jesse Van Tol, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

Without the CRA, a report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) estimates that Missouri’s first congressional district could lose up $300 million in mortgage and small business lending.

“We’re eager to work with the regulatory agencies, Congress, banks and the entire financial sector to modernize [CRA],” Van Tol writes. But simply stripping away geographic lending requirements could signal a return to redlining, he argues. 

“The agenda is much about the bully pulpit and drawing attention to the deregulatory agenda that has been pursued over the last year,” said Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “I do think that there’s a heightened awareness of what’s happening in low and moderate income communities and communities of color.”