Through workshops, conferences, investigation of civil rights complaints, systemic "testing," education and outreach, fair housing planning and "best practice" compliance initiatives, NCRC Fair Housing provides technical assistance to our members in rural, suburban and urban communities to promote economic justice and equal housing opportunity in our nation.
NCRC Fair Housing is currently focusing it's activities on
increasing our members capacity to challenge discrimination, creating a
anti-predatory lending member network to challenge discriminatory lending,
and to build community lender partnerships that celebrate good business
and access to credit.
The mission of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) is to increase fair and equal access to credit, capital, and banking services and products because discrimination is illegal, unjust, and detrimental to the economic growth and well being of our society. NCRC is a HUD Qualified Fair Housing Organization. Seeking to support long-term solutions, NCRC provides resources, knowledge and skills to build community and individual net wealth.
NCRC is at the vanguard of a growing movement in which community leaders in rural and urban areas across the nation are becoming educated about, and active in, efforts to affect the flow of capital and the provision of fair housing and fair lending services in their neighborhoods.
NCRC has worked to make fair housing prevalent in all
communities, to increase the capacity of neighborhood-based organizations,
and to promote community-lender partnerships. These goals have been
accomplished through fair lending testing, research, client counseling,
investigating predatory lending practices, pro-integration activities,
education and outreach programs, and private enforcement. NCRC Fair
Lending professional staff have testified on Capital Hill, served as a
resource to both the private and public sector, and are invited as
"experts" to speak at conferences througout the nation.
The NCRC Consumer Rescue Fund Initiative is designed to get borrowers out of abusive loans and helps borrowers at risk of foreclosure get a fresh start. All Consumer Rescue Fund loans are conventional home mortgage loans with prime-like interest rates, no fees, no points, no prepayment penalties, and no insurance or ancillary product sales or offerings. The National Anti-Predatory Lending Consumer Rescue Fund has created a national predatory lending referral network in cooperation with other consumer rights, legal service, fair lending and the pro-bono Bar. The purpose of the collaboration is to maximize our collective ability to bring fair lending cases and complaints for matters that were previously perceived as consumer issues. NCRC is also reporting out "trends" data and refinancing problematic consumer loans in order to give fair lending victims a "fresh start."
NCRC Indian Country Fair Lending Initiative
A new partnership between the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) promises to protect more than one million Native Americans nationwide from predatory loans and housing discrimination.
NAIHC has joined forces with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) to promote model anti-predatory lending legislation, as well as other initiatives to reduce the high levels of discrimination and subprime lending found in Indian country. In addition to future protection, current Native American victims will become eligible for recasting of predatory loans via a "Consumer Rescue Fund." The announcement was made at NAIHC's annual convention in San Diego, on Monday, June 17, 2002.
The partnership includes the following initiatives:
· NCRC (through
NAIHC) will introduce its model anti-predatory lending bill to tribal
councils.
· NAIHC will promote these initiatives to its 400 tribal
housing authority members.
· NCRC will provide hands-on training on
fair lending/fair housing, at two or three NAIHC locations, including the
San Diego convention, to educate tribal housing staff.
· NCRC will roll
out its Consumer Rescue Fund Initiative.
· NAIHC will incorporate
awareness of the Consumer Rescue Fund in NAIHC communications, and as part
of its well-established homebuyer education programs.
NAIHC Chairman Chester Carl said, "The NCRC and NAIHC partnership provides concrete tools to halt abusive lending to Native Americans, who are especially vulnerable to predatory lenders. Because many areas of Indian country are remote, and banks are scarce, choices for Indian country homebuyers are slim. This creates an opportunity for abuse."
Predatory lending is rapidly increasing in America, especially in minority and lower-income communities. The likelihood of predatory lending is greatest in communities in which subprime and manufactured home lenders have cornered the market, leaving borrowers with few alternatives to high cost loans. David Berenbaum, NCRC's Senior V.P. - Policy & Director of Civil Rights, noted that "on a national level, NCRC found that high cost lenders were 2.7 times more likely to make conventional home mortgage loans to Native Americans than whites in 2000. In some states, the disparity is even greater. In New Mexico, for instance, high cost lenders were 4 times more likely to issue mortgages to Native Americans than whites."
John Taylor, President and CEO of NCRC stated, "We have broken many treaties with Native Americans. Our country is now breaking the treaty to protect the American dream of homeownership in Indian country. NCRC is proud to join NAIHC in providing tools to safeguard homeownership."
NCRC Fair Lending Partnership
Activities
NCRC Fair Housing provides workshops and facilitates partnerships meetings throughout the country. The workshops discuss fair lending laws and civil rights; fair housing; discrimination in advertising, marketing, accommodations, and accessibility; fair housing and fair lending data analysis; and, community needs and building partnerships.
NCRC's partnership meetings between community-based organizations and lenders cover the following agenda items: review of local work plans and goals; roles and responsibilities of credible partners; assessing community needs; identification and discussion of impediments to fair housing and fair lending, and their solutions; and, assembling an action plan.
NCRC Anti-Predatory Lending
Toolkit
In March of 2002 NCRC Fair Housing published NCRCís Anti-Predatory Lending Toolkit - Second Edition. This manual reviews the state of fair housing law, how predatory lending manifests itself, case developments, the relationship between civil rights, CRA and predatory lending, and proposed and enacted state and local law. A PDF copy of the toolkit can be downloaded from the publication section of this site.
NCRC Fair Lending Testing & "Mystery Shopping"
NCRC has received a United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Fair Housing Initiatives Program Private Enforcement Initiative Grant to implement an innovative national sub-prime fair lending compliance initiative. NCRC will use the investigative technique of "testing" in cooperation with our members to challenge discriminatory sub-prime lending practices in six metropolitan areas.
NCRC, working in collaboration with our members and other key civil rights organizations, has expanded our fair lending compliance initiatives in order to proactively challenge discrimination and predatory lending in the sub-prime lending market. This "carrot and stick" approach celebrate best practice and community lending partnerships while policing those who violate the law.
NCRC and our members are uniquely qualified to serve as "private attorney generals" in the struggle for economic justice and responsible lending in the sub-prime marketplace, and in fact, NCRC is actively engaged in the fight to ensure equal access to credit regardless of an individuals or a communities demographics and expanding the capacity of our members to pursue civil rights violations. For more information about this initiative, and NCRC's other "mystery shopping" best practice programs, please contact David Berenbaum, Senior Vice President - Program and Director of Civil Rights at (202) 628-8866.
Similarly, NCRC Fair Housing has produced a manual on mortgage lending testing and sub-prime testing which is being used by member organizations. The manual provides instruction for individuals participating as testers to develop evidence of discriminatory lending practices and is designed to be a precursor to the methodology and materials proposed in this initiative.
NCRC Fair Lending staff also produced a nationally acclaimed Anti-Predatory Lending Fair Lending Financial Literacy Training Module (with HUD support) that is being used by community groups across the country who are partnering with NCRC Financial Education efforts.
NCRC Advocates for Open Housing In The Colonias
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition
(NCRC) has completed an exciting fair housing initiative in Colonias
communities of Texas and Arizona. NCRC worked in partnership with over 50
public and private sector organizations to promote fair lending, financial
literacy and community investment in targeted Colonias communities.
Colonias are clusters of extremely impoverished settlements in agriculturally valueless land that flourish along the Texas-Mexico border, though Colonias can also be found in New Mexico, Arizona and California. Texas has some 1,400 Colonias in which nearly 400,000 mostly Hispanic people live. Some 64.4 percent of all residents and 85 percent of those under 18 were born in the U.S.
Developers divide Colonias land into small lots, put in little or no infrastructure, and then sell them to low-income individuals seeking affordable housing. People often buy the lots through contract for deed, a property financing method whereby developers typically offer a low down payment and low monthly payments but no title to the property until the final payment is made. This is a rural form of "predatory lending" in the Colonias.
In corporation with HUD, the State of Texas Office of Housing and Community Affairs, Bienestar Famil.iar. The Southern Arizona Fair Housing Center, The State of Texas County of Webb, and with the local sponsorship from municipal and private sector leaders, NCRC Fair Housing conducted three Fair Housing and Financial Literacy "Train the Trainer" programs which were attended by over 130 people in the Colonias near El Paso, Texas, Laredo, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona
In preparation for these programs, NCRC staff visited with community leaders and researched community fair lending and CRA needs. This assessment led to a series of recommendations for next steps by program participants and the over 300 public and private sector leaders who were interviewed by NCRC Staff. Copies of the report, recommendations, and analysis can be obtained by contacting NCRC Fair Housing at (202) 628-8866.
NCRC continues to work in the Colonias, and was recently invited to participate as a planning resource on the Colonias Gateway Initiative being sponsored by HUD, to serve on a Anti-Predatory Lending Taskforce established by the Texas Office of Housing & Community Affairs in the Colonias, and is working to establish a full service fair housing organization in the region. NCRC is also monitoring related HMDA, pay day lender and contract to deed issues and providing technical assistance to local groups.
Best Practices, Education & Outreach
Over the last several years, NCRC has held more than 20 fair housing training workshops in local communities across the U.S. funded by two HUD FHIP (Fair Housing Initiatives Program) grants. Each workshop has been well attended, received with great enthusiasm and interest, and produced long-lasting results. During NCRC's FHIP program, "Forging Community-Lender Partnerships to Open and Expand Homeownership Opportunities ," over 800 people attended 16 workshops held in 12 cities across the country. The final product of the FHIP grant was a how-to guide on building partnerships, entitled "Finding Common Ground: How To Build Community-Lender Partnerships Through the Fair Housing Planning Process."
This book, published in June 1997, is a user-friendly guide on how to build partnerships among community organizations, financial institutions and government agencies. Financed by a HUD grant, Finding Common Ground explains how to research and analyze HMDA data, assess the impediments to fair housing, and determine how federal funds will be spent in each city, town, or state. Finding Common Ground explains critical components used in building partnerships, and many resources are offered for that process.
NCRC has also worked with lenders, community organizations, and government agencies, such as local HUD offices, to encourage working partnerships to overcome barriers to fair housing. To implement the program, NCRC partnered with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Association of Community Action Agencies (NACAA) in seven states across the U.S.: California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, and Virginia.
In a continuation of its organizational philosophy of building local capacity, NCRC is currently offering training and giving technical assistance to local organizations for testing for discrimination in mortgage lending. Also, as part of its fair housing program, NCRC works with member organizations to assist them in the use of the Fair Housing Act to obtain CRA results, and to monitor compliance by city and state recipients of HUD funds of their obligation to affirmatively furthering fair housing.
For more information about NCRC's Civil Rights Initiatives, Please contact:
David Berenbaum, Senior
Vice-President -Policy & Director of Civil Rights
Lloyd London, Fair Lending
Specialist
Lyonel Lagrone, Fair
Lending Test Coordinator
Zorana
Hudnell, Fair Housing Assistant
Last updated: Wednesday, August 14, 2002
