The mortgage crisis, spurred by abusive high-cost loans, has devastated families across much of the country. Communities must contend with the considerable social and economic costs of vacant, boarded-up buildings, while families must rebuild their lives after losing their homes.

Even though the comment period on CRA modernization is now closed, there are other opportunities to provide input on policies that hold lenders accountable to their communities. Federal bank regulators are holding public hearings on updating the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which requires mortgage lenders to provide detailed public reports of their mortgage lending activities to regulators and the public (register here by September 15 for the Chicago hearing).

Pages and pages of ratios and figures don’t usually fire up a crowd, but they do affect the rash of foreclosures our country is experiencing and Americans are fired up about that.  One of the driving factors behind the foreclosure crisis was lenders putting unsuspecting borrowers into loans they could not reasonably afford.  Borrowers of color, women, the elderly, and low-income families were favorite targets for these practices. Thankfully, legislators recently passed a bill that includes the modernization of a tool critical to fighting discrimination in the housing market.

The predatory subprime lending crisis devastated families and communities across Chicago and the nation, particularly low-wealth communities and communities of color.

A crucial tool to fight discriminatory and predatory lending is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). HMDA requires mortgage lenders to provide detailed reports of their lending to regulators and the public. Woodstock Institute uses HMDA data to track discriminatory lending practices, study patterns of community investment, and hold individual banks accountable for their lending practices.