“This is issue No. 1,” said Jesse Van Tol, who heads the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a collection of more than 600 groups that pressure banks to invest more in underserved communities. “We’re rallying everyone who cares about civil rights, affordable housing, community development and basic fairness to oppose these rules, and we aren’t alone.”

Often when Dedrick Asante-Muhammad gives a talk about race and economics, it’s to audiences who might not have a base level of understanding. That was not his audience at the region’s first St. Louis Racial Equity Summit, he said, so he decided to be more clear with his language.

As Ed Gorman of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition pointed out not long ago, “CDFIs, just judged by the total capital being invested, are a remarkable success over the last 25 years, but I think everybody knows we could all do better.”

Experienced groups adept at applying the CRA in a positive way, such as the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, have objected to the proposed changes.

Income inequality linked to gun violence, but unequal distribution of resources isn’t an accident. According to a study published last year by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, three out of four neighborhoods that were redlined in the United States decades ago continue to struggle economically.

A group of community reinvestment groups, including the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said in a joint statement last week that the proposal “utterly fails to achieve what were supposed to be the primary objectives of rule changes: greater clarity for lenders and better results for low- and moderate-income communities and people of color.”

Additionally, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s recent study ranked DC as America’s most gentrified city, and commercial property owners are shifting property tax burden increases to tenants.