During the last year, your support has proven critical in helping Woodstock pursue its fair lending, wealth creation, and financial systems reform work. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to partner with you to promote foreclosure prevention, payday lending reform, and examining the impact of concentrated, very low credit scores.

As our monthly Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) analyses have continued to point out, it’s no secret that HAMP isn’t doing enough to put a substantial dent in the wave of foreclosures hitting the Chicago area and the country. The greater Chicago region has still seen  132,289 new foreclosures since HAMP was introduced—clearly, the need for substantial and sustainable foreclosure prevention assistance is huge. We need to fix HAMP to match the realities of troubled homeowners.

Do your dreams take place among rolling fields of foreclosure data?

Do sloppy data make you have a conniption fit?

Then you should apply to be our research assistant/intern!

Shani Smith always dreamed of buying a home in her neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. When the payments on her mortgage skyrocketed, that dream turned nightmarish. For eight months, Smith has tried to negotiate with her bank to lower her payments to a level that she can afford—to no end. Smith tried everything she could, even paying $4,000 to a law firm that promised—and failed—to secure a loan modification. After counselors at a loan modification fair in downtown Chicago told her they couldn’t help, Smith walked 64 blocks home—that’s 8 miles—because she couldn’t even afford bus fare.

Representatives from leading policy and community development organizations met with Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday, February 24 in the Roseland neighborhood to examine ways to stop the scourge of vacant homes on Chicago area communities.

This week, our staff explored new trends changing the way the worlds of manufacturing, capitalism, and expanding cities and finds out how the internet gifted Detroit with RoboCop.

The regulatory environment continues to look more and more unfriendly to providers of income tax refund anticipation loans (RALs), which is great news for consumers. On the heels of recent actions by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) limiting RAL activity in the banks it regulates, the FDIC notified the largest remaining bank that provides RALs, Republic Bancorp, that it considers the practice to be “unsafe and unsound.” Republic can contest the notice within 60 days; the bank has indicated that it’s not going to let go of RALs without a fight. 

Debate is brewing across the country about what shape our housing finance system should take in the years to come. As consumer advocates, we need to ensure that the system that emerges from these discussions meets the needs of  low-wealth people seeking affordable and sustainable housing.

The new housing finance system must support broad access to the products that made home ownership, the primary means of building wealth for many Americans, a reality for communities that otherwise would have been overlooked. It’s worth noting that, from the aftermath of the Great Depression to the beginning of the new millennium, government-sponsored entities (GSEs) like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ensured the flow of responsible credit to underserved communities and considerably expanded homeownership opportunities.

The foreclosure crisis continues to evolve and pose new challenges for communities working towards recovery. Chicago area municipalities, community and policy groups, and financial institutions have been working together for years to develop tools and strategies to handle the problems associated with foreclosures on single-family homes, many of which have been highlighted by Regional HOPI. A new threat is commanding these groups’ attention:  foreclosures on condominiums.

Whether it’s sharing best practices, catching up with colleagues at like-minded organizations, or meeting with policy makers, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s 2011 Annual Conference promises to brings together hundreds of community leaders, development experts, bankers, legislators, regulators, academics and others. Participants explore and debate the state of the industry and measures needed to ensure fair access to capital and to bring more people into the financial mainstream.