CRA Organizing

California Reinvestment Committee Release Organizing Manual

Has the name on your neighborhood bank branch changed in the last few
years? Is your bank branch still open or is it now a check casher or a
pawn shop? Banking has changed tremendously in recent years. Huge
national mergers have resulted in branch closings, new bank staff, and
bank chief executives headquartered thousands of miles away from your
community. A new how-to manual from the California Reinvestment
Committee, Five Steps to Community Reinvestment Success, offers
strategic approaches to focus bankers’ attention on the needs of your
community using the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), other laws and
public pressure designed.

Until the last decade, banks often redlined low-income communities and
communities of color by refusing to lend to these families and
businesses. Today, the huge banks that control the industry don’t even
see your neighborhood from their lofty headquarters in office towers
thousands of miles away. Bank staff use technology, such as computer
credit scoring, to make loan decisions that are still based on what is
called “credit worthiness.” Those who don’t fit the computer model have
their loan applications denied. Those who do not pass credit scoring
are still more likely to be low-income people or people of color.

The goal of this manual is to give community organizations the necessary
tools to wage a community reinvestment campaign to gain greater access
to bank loans, investment. The first section contains background and
other information designed to put the CRA campaign in a strategic
context. The operational steps of the campaign (the “Five Steps”)
follow. Specific information on possible formats for the CRA agreement,
bank relationships and other information follow in subsequent sections
and appendices.

If too many of your neighbors are getting turned down for loans or bank
accounts, there is something your community organization can do to
change this. Under the Community Reinvestment Act, financial
institutions are legally responsible for offering fair and equal access
to all who live in their geographic service area. The Fair Housing,
Fair Lending, and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts also make it illegal for
them to discriminate. This how-to manual seeks to simply and clearly
identify methods that your community can use to get access to the
lending products, investment vehicles and financial services that you
and your community need and deserve.

Your community can win community reinvestment (CRA) campaigns. Your
community organization has fought neighborhood battles before and a CRA
campaign will be similar to those struggles. CRC hopes that a
neighborhood organization or community coalition will use these
materials to guide them in putting pressure on local bank(s) who may be
practicing lending, investment and financial services discrimination.
Our goal is that this manual serve to expand the use of CRA as a tool
for community economic advancement.

Please spread the word about this CRA how-to manual. Copies are
available from CRC at a nominal cost of $20 for nonprofit
organizations or $50 for others. For more information, contact Kalina
Misi at (415)
864-3980 or kmisi@calreinvest.org.



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