2022 Housing Oregon Industry Support Conference & Annual Awards Night Gala

NCRC’s Senior Organizing Advisor Jerry Kellman and CRA Coordinator Catherine Petrusz will be speaking at a two-part workshop at the 2022 Housing Oregon Industry Support Conference & Annual Awards Night Gala.

Community Reinvestment and Housing, Part One: Lines Of Credit For Acquisition, Development and Pre-Development Financing 

Lending to CDC’s and other nonprofit housing developers has not kept pace with the intense and ongoing gentrification in the Pacific Northwest. Nonprofit developers have faced discrimination and have been shut out of advantageous financing terms offered to their for-profit counterparts. The Umpqua Bank Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) commits the bank to help remedy this, but the CBA’s outcomes will depend on successful collaboration and partnership with CDCs and other nonprofit housing groups. Oregon organizations are invited into a dialogue with NCRC on how to shape these aspects of community development, and how they can partner with the bank once the CBA term begins in 2023. Together, we will call on other banks to keep pace. This workshop will outline emerging lending options committed to in the CBA and ask you what you need so you can increase the scale of your affordable housing development. 

Community Reinvestment and Housing, Part Two: A Comprehensive Minority Homeownership Initiative

The disparity in homeownership rates is the single largest factor in the disparity of wealth between white households and minority households. The Umpqua Bank Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) includes a commitment to support the Puget Sound Black Homeownership Initiative in Seattle, as well as similar initiatives in Washington and Oregon aimed to increase homeownership not just for African Americans, but for Latinos and other racial minorities. The Initiative, one of many similar BIPOC homeownership initiatives nationwide, offers a comprehensive approach to increasing rates of minority homeownership, focusing on seven areas: Marketing & Outreach to Minority Buyers; Pre-/Post-Purchase Counseling; Down Payment Assistance and other Purchase Supports & Tools; Innovative Credit & Lending; Increasing Affordable Housing Production; New Policies & Practices to Address Ongoing Discrimination; and Sustaining Existing Minority Homeowners. This Workshop will explain the problem, the Initiative, and will include a dialogue with participants to identify ways to make it happen in Oregon.