Center for Responsible Lending Sign Up Information

Fall 2019

In this issue we explore solutions to the worsening student loan crisis, the profound dangers of housing discrimination, and mark the anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) intended implementation of the payday lending rule.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive this newsletter, please encourage them to subscribe today.  Follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook.

My co-workers and I at the Center for Responsible Lending have been devoting time to reflecting on our work - how we can best serve you, your families, and your communities in the months and years ahead. 

Your contributions will make a critical impact as we plan for the future!  
 

The stark reality of the past few years is that federal regulators are not doing nearly enough to protect consumers. Working with our partners in communities across the country, we have been able to advance protections of vulnerable communities on the state level. We have seen the payoff of this as states across the country have stepped up to protect consumers. We plan to build on these successes in 2020. 

Your support and investment in our mission enables us to continue our important work to help create economic opportunity for all borrowers. Please make a tax-deductible donation to CRL today.

Sincerely,

Kiran Sidhu
Policy Counsel

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.
Please visit www.responsiblelending.org to view additional information, and explore our research and analysis!

Our 2020 Commitment

This past year was filled with many challenges and threats, but through it all the staff of the Center for Responsible Lending persisted in tackling these obstacles in our efforts to ensure a fair and inclusive financial marketplace.
 
With your support in 2019 we were able to prevent any state from rolling back protections against payday loans and saw a rate cap bill signed into law in California. Our groundbreaking research on student loan debt led to the release of Quicksand: Borrowers of Color and the Student Debt Crisis, offering policy recommendations to reform our country’s student loan system, close the racial wealth gap, and ensure that the system is fair to all students. CRL staff provided powerful testimony before the House Financial Services Committee regarding inequity in the nation's housing finance system.  

Our commitment to you is to continue to address all aspects of consumer rights; from the growing crisis of student loan debt, to astronomical interest rates, to the threats to fair housing and more. 

In short, we will continue to fight for consumer rights so that all families can achieve economic security! Please join us in this fight by making a donation today.

Sincerely,

Mike Calhoun
President
 

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.

Wishing you and your family a joyous and peaceful 2020!

Sincerely,

Mike Calhoun, President 
And the entire staff of the Center for Responsible Lending

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.

Please visit www.responsiblelending.org to view additional information, and explore our research and analysis!

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) will host a townhall tonight (8pm - 9:15pm ET) on our Facebook Live entitled: COVID-19 Financial Services Relief & The Black Community. It will be moderated by April Ryan, with special guest comments from Chairwoman Maxine Waters.

Panelists will include Kim Saunders (National Bankers Association), Lisa Rice (National Fair Housing Alliance), as well as CRL''s Nikitra Bailey and Ashley Harrington. Sherrilyn Ifill (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) will provide closing remarks.

COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Black Americans due to structural inequality and lack of access to safe and responsible financial services. Learn how recent legislative responses impact business owners, homeowners, and student loan borrowers in Black America. Discuss federal relief measures and needed advocacy to ensure Black communities get their fair share.

You can watch the live stream on CRL''s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CenterforResponsibleLending/

If you have a question that you would like the panelists to address, please let us know: https://tinyurl.com/th-may18.

Please share this with anyone who may be interested: retweet CRL and share the Facebook Event.

Dear Friend,

The student debt crisis is $1.7 trillion and growing. Affecting 45 million Americans and disproportionately impacting people of color, it requires big, bold action to confront and solve.

Watch our Federal Advocacy Director, Ashley Harrington, speak on the important work CRL is doing to address a crisis of this magnitude:

Please make a generous gift to CRL today to support our advocacy on this important issue. In the words of Ashley, we are proud to be a part of this effort that we hope will soon bring relief to those who need it most.

Thank you,

Team CRL

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.

Dear Friend,

Amid all the challenges 2020 has presented, one thing is certain: we've needed to lean on each other more than ever. For that reason, let me say thank you. Thank you for being invested in the fight for a fairer, more inclusive financial marketplace for all.

We are deeply thankful as well to the civil rights activists who are leading the way to a more equitable future. Much of our work at CRL is rooted in identifying and disrupting institutional practices that marginalize communities of color and low-income communities. This year especially we have doubled down on our commitments to make right the racial injustices that have stained our country's past and present.

Through the difficulties of this year, which have been many, we here at the Center for Responsible Lending are also celebrating the victories and the progress toward a more equitable future.

• In Nebraska, 83% of voters rejected triple-digit payday loans - the largest margin among the three states in which citizens determined the outcome. A persistent coalition, assisted by CRL, beat back multiple payday industry attempts to block the ballot measure.
• Broad student debt forgiveness, an essential plank of CRL's agenda since mid-2019 rose to national prominence in COVID-19 relief discussions. CRL advocates a minimum of $20,000 of cancellation for the most vulnerable borrowers and the incoming administration favored debt cancellation on the campaign trail.
• July marked the 10th anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. CRL played a key role in Dodd-Frank''s passage and hosted a Facebook Live commemoration event with special guests Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
• When it became clear that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) would not reach small business of color, CRL quickly and persuasively advocated for reforms to ensure that these economic engines of growth and opportunity received the funding they desperately needed.

These were not the only bright spots this year. With the impending administration change, our staff is grateful for the chance to shift focus from defending existing consumer protections and fighting the constant flood of harmful administrative actions to what really motivates us: advocating for stronger consumer protections and policies that provide real opportunity, reduce the racial wealth gap, and address systemic inequality.

Though there is much work to be done, we are encouraged by the brighter year ahead. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of working families, families of color, and so many more.

Thank you,

Mike Calhoun
President

P.S. This year, CRL is participating in #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving. We hope you will join us on December 1 by making a gift in support of a more equitable economy.

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.

On Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 2:00 p.m. ET/ 11:00 a.m. PT, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) will host a virtual panel of housing experts to discuss how the COVID crisis has impacted housing. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria will share the agency's response to the current public health crisis, followed by a panel highlighting the need for housing opportunities for Black and Latino borrowers during these pressing times.

Panelists will include leaders from CRL, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Urban League, and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. Questions for the panelists can be submitted through Twitter using the hashtag #HousingChat.

You can watch the live stream on CRL''s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CenterforResponsibleLending/

If you have a question that you would like the panelists to address, please let us know: https://forms.gle/RC8AqdvvczPYaNHw7.

Please share this with anyone who may be interested: retweet CRL and share the Facebook Event.

On Thursday, July 23, at 3:30 p.m. ET/ 12:30 p.m. PT, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) will host a virtual panel discussion to commemorate 10 years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The talk will focus on the civil rights groups' push for the financial reform law, a reflection on the CFPB's work, and hopes for the future. The discussion will also touch on Dodd-Frank''s impact on communities of color and on current institutional barriers to full and fair economic equity and inclusion, especially during this COVID-19 economic and public health crisis.

Panelists will include leaders from CRL, NAACP, National CAPACD, National Fair Housing Alliance, and UnidosUS, with special introductory remarks from Congresswoman Maxine Waters and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and closing remarks from civil rights leader Wade Henderson.

You can watch the live stream on CRL''s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CenterforResponsibleLending/

If you have a question that you would like the panelists to address, please let us know: https://forms.gle/nuTkt1B2FFrCAARS7.

Please share this with anyone who may be interested: retweet CRL and share the Facebook Event.

Spring 2020

As the nation faces COVID-19, relief for low and moderate income families and communities of color-many of whom have not recovered from the Great Recession of 2008-is CRL's highest concern, as we also fight for mortgages for credit-worthy borrowers, advance national and grassroots partnerships to influence regulatory actors, and collaborate with state coalitions to achieve borrower safeguards.

If you know of anyone who would like to receive this newsletter, please encourage them to subscribe today.  Follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Dear Friend,

I hope you and your family are safe and well.

We may not have had the pleasure of meeting - I am a new member of the board of directors here at the Center for Responsible Lending. I've used my voice to advocate for socially responsible investing my entire career and I couldn't be more proud of CRL's longstanding work to create fairness throughout the financial services industry - especially during this time of economic insecurity, weakened consumer regulations and a global pandemic.

Here at CRL, we are fighting nonstop to protect economically vulnerable families. Families, who through no fault of their own, are suffering based on a response to a pandemic they could not have prepared for. And we need your help.

Support from donors like you funds nonstop advocacy for families. You give them the protections and support they need to weather this storm and to create a stronger future.

With your gift, we can achieve a pandemic response that addresses systemic inequalities. One that closes the racial wealth gap, that creates opportunities for low- to middle-income families and that protects all consumers.

This year has been tough, tougher than most. If you are able, please make a tax-deductible donation today so that we can continue this vital work. It is needed now more than ever.

With gratitude,


Amy Domini
Board of Directors
Center for Responsible Lending

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.

Dear Friend,

On behalf of all of us here at Self-Help, let me begin this message by wishing you peace and wellbeing at the end of a tough year. Our country faced and continues to face many crises, crises that have long-term repercussions for the communities we serve. While we are looking forward to the new year with hope and optimism, we are also steeled in our resolve that we will continue to support our members and communities through the ongoing challenges and beyond.

One way we offered support during the COVID-19 pandemic was with our lending through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Self-Help's PPP loan impact has been significant. We lent $183 million to 1,758 recipients, with 59% of our loans going to businesses or nonprofits led by people of color. This crucial funding has maintained nearly 20,000 jobs through the pandemic.

We strongly focused our lending on assisting organizations run by people of color, because we know that they are economic pillars in underserved communities, most at-risk for closure from COVID-19, and faced numerous barriers in accessing PPP funds.

Our affiliate, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), immediately recognized that the PPP would not reach many small businesses, especially businesses of color, and pushed for reforms to target its distribution. CRL's advocacy helped broaden the program to help better serve community development financial institutions that focus on low-income communities and communities of color. This work by CRL amplified the PPP's impact across the country, ensuring that small businesses of color received the funding they desperately needed.

Your financial support will bolster CRL in its steadfast fight to make sure the needs of communities of color and communities of modest wealth are always front and center in any future stimulus legislation. Please consider making a generous, tax-deductible donation today. With your help, CRL will enter 2021 in an even stronger position to advocate for the needs of often invisible businesses, families, and communities.

Thank you,

Martin Eakes
CEO

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) is a leading nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on financial fairness and opportunity. Fighting for economic justice for low- and middle-income families, military personnel and veterans, and people of color is our mission and highest priority.