Proposed changes to anti-redlining law would gut its intended purpose, advocates say
REVEAL
Kevin Stein, a director at the California Reinvestment Coalition, said these changes take away from the law’s focus on local investment. “By opening up the door in every respect it just further and further weakens the accountability banks have in meeting local needs,” said Stein.
He’s been studying in the U.S. legally for 7 years. Bank of America froze his account anyway
MIAMI HERALD
“We work with consumer groups and financial counselors in immigrant communities across and the country,” Paulina Gonzalez, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition said in an email. “This is new. We have Bank of America customers who we’ve spoken to who have never been asked this…
U.S. Bank Regulator Moves to Modify Lending Rules for Poorer Communities
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“We’re concerned that this is a proposal from the OCC that is disguised as one based on community need, when really it serves the needs of banks first,” said Paulina Gonzalez, the executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition.
Banks are standing on the wrong side of history — with Trump
OP-ED: THE HILL
Banks are choosing to be complicit in Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda by asking for this information, despite the fact that U.S. citizenship is not required to open or maintain a bank account.
Spiders, sewage and a flurry of fees – the other side of renting a house from Wall Street
REUTERS
This is far from the alluring vision of life in a rental home that Invitation Homes has promoted since Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, built the company on the wreckage of the foreclosure crisis.
Fixing America’s Forgotten Places
THE ATLANTIC
“We aren’t concerned that it’s not going to help—we’re concerned it’s going to hurt,” said Paulina Gonzalez, the executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, which has publicly pushed back on the Opportunity Zone initiative as structured.
First Republic Bank finances displacement of residents
REVEAL NEWS
First Republic Bank, one of the largest lenders among banks based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has fueled the displacement of families by lending to landlords who evict their tenants and drive up rents, according to a study released today.
Few Winners When Courts Privatize the Collection of Public Debts
NEXT CITY
“We want to make sure that all types of debt are being collected fairly, if they need to be collected at all,” says Paulina Maqueda Escamilla, a researcher at the California Reinvestment Coalition and graduate student at UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, who led the research…
You Don’t Need to Be a Citizen to Have a US Bank Account
NERDWALLET
“There’s nothing in the law that requires anybody to be a U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident,” Gonzalez says. “Anybody who is able to establish their identity is able to open an account.”
The Systemic Racism of Public Debt Collection in California
THE AMERICAN PROSPECT
Regressive taxation is a key ingredient to racism in the mass incarceration era, and a new California Reinvestment Coalition report adds a wrinkle to this distressing saga. The group of more than 300 organizations advocating for low-income communities and communities of color found similar dynamics when they…
A New Tax Break for Poor Neighborhoods Could Benefit Luxury Developers
BLOOMBERG
After California released a preliminary list of potential opportunity zones, the California Reinvestment Coalition and more than two dozen other community development and civil rights groups to sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, in mid-March, urging him to take more time to study the state’s selections….
BankThink: The ‘C’ in CRA should still mean something
OP-ED: AMERICAN BANKER
CRA was put into place to address the refusal of banks to lend to and meet the financial needs of low- and middle-income communities. Crucially, CRA brings together communities that have been historically marginalized and denied access to banking services, and the organizations that represent them, to…
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