In the News

Residents in several of Columbia’s historically Black neighborhoods face shorter lifespans and greater risk factors for COVID-19, according to a new study from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington D.C. based non-profit.

A new report released by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a nonprofit fighting to end discrimination in lending, housing, and business, shows that people in neighborhoods that were redlined over 80 years ago are at a higher risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition provides a possible explanation: Researchers found banks treat Black applicants different from white applicants, encouraging white business owners to apply for one or more loans while discouraging Black business owners from applying for any.

Shekinah Mitchell, a VCU alum and former employee, stated in an article for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition that she has lived at four different Richmond addresses in five years due to rent increases and changes in land ownership.

As a 2018 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found, these racist practices diverted resources away from poorer neighborhoods and deepened economic inequality, with consequences that continue to this day.

A 2017 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that banks were twice as likely to provide business loans to white applicants than Black applicants, and three times as likely to have follow-up meetings with white applicants than even more qualified Black applicants.

NCRC Senior Policy Adviser Josh Silver argued that if nonbanks remain outside of CRA, “the competitive position of banks eventually will be undermined to the detriment of access to safe and sound credit and capital for LMI communities.”

Amid the pandemic, a July report by The National Community Reinvestment Coalition found that disparities in small business lending have continued.

74% of American neighborhoods ‘redlined’ in the 1930’s are “still struggling economically.– National Community Reinvestment Coalition

“We commend Huntington for recognizing the real need for access to capital that remains among low- and moderate-income communities throughout the Midwest,” said NCRC CEO Jesse Van Tol.

“We’re all hoping it is the lifeline it purports to be, but so much of it is really going to be dependent on how landlords and the judicial system react to this — the force and authority they give to it,” said Gerron Levi, senior director of government affairs at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

The letter was submitted by: CRL, Consumer Federation of America, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), National CAPACD, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), National Community Stabilization Trust, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Housing Conference, National Urban League, and UnidosUS

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition conducted an experiment in which white and Black subjects requested information about loans to help keep their small businesses open during the pandemic. It found that white requesters received favorable treatment—were offered more loan products, and were more likely to be encouraged to apply for them—compared with Black requesters.

“you have to have an area that has very low values on residential real estate, which involves disinvestment and [maybe] abandonment of certain areas,” says Bruce Mitchell, a senior analyst for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC).

The central bank’s proposal to overhaul the Community Reinvestment Act differs markedly from the OCC’s regulation in testing, data collection and other areas.