The ongoing protests and the celebration of Juneteenth have led to a moment of national reflection on the fight for racial justice. We have made significant progress, but the struggle for equality is far from over. Housing has historically been a fundamental component of structural inequality. And while the federal government has implemented programs that accurately address historic inequities, now is the time to commit to those programs and ensure they work as intended – not to implement radical changes to them.
The next
step in the fight against racial injustice should be to redouble our efforts and
preserve the programs that can create the meaningful, long term change Americans
deserve. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is one program that should be protected
in order to best provide for low-income families and small-business owners in a
time of great vulnerability.
The CRA
has played an instrumental role in supporting low-income communities by preventing
redlining and instead encouraging banks to meet the credit needs of their
respective communities. Since its passage in 1977, federal financial regulators
have monitored how banks fulfill the needs of its neighborhood residents, have ensured
that they actively open new branches in low-and-middle income communities, and have
taken part in various community development loans and investments to
rehabilitate distressed neighborhoods.
Recently proposed
changes to the CRA threaten to upend this infrastructure. Changes to the
program would eliminate federal responsibility to monitor banking equity and,
in the process, would place countless low-income families at risk. While we
should diligently examine long-in-place regulatory frameworks and explore ways
to modernize them, changes that take resources away from communities in need completely
miss the mark.
Instead of
these proposed changes, we should find ways to better serve vulnerable
communities as there is still much work to do. New York is one of the world’s
most diverse cities and yet is the second most segregated urban
environment in the
country. It is New Yorkers of color who are disproportionately impacted by our
affordability crisis. We are seeing the impact of these inequalities right now,
where New Yorkers of color are much more likely to contract coronavirus.
Where and how we live has profound impacts on every facet of our lives. A
legacy of discriminatory housing policy continues to shape all aspects of our communities,
including healthcare, education, and financial welfare. Now more than ever we
must work to address these long-standing issues through our housing policies.
NYSAFAH strongly
opposes any regulations of the Community Reinvestment Act that will only harm
low-income communities. We are committed to fighting for equitable housing that
serves everyone. We will continue to fight for the affordable housing programs
that will create a housing infrastructure in which everyone can find a safe,
quality and affordable home.
