|
Home
About JCA
History
Mission
Board of Directors
Staff
Rabbinic Advisors
Organize!
Affordable Housing
Community Reinvestment
Congregational Organizing
Immigrant Rights
Racial Justice
Indie
Jews
Seeds of Justice Fellowship
Hekhsher Tzedek
Postville
Progress by Pesach
Central Corridor
Health Care
Kol - Voice - Golos
Publications
Quarterly Newsletter
Annual Report
Calendar
Contact
JCA
Join
JCA
Links
Photos
and Press
|
Community
Reinvestment
A Jewish Response to the
Foreclosure Crisis
In the book of Exodus, God
issues a stern warning to hold fast to moral principles in our financial
dealings with each other:
“And if you loan money to
My people, the poor among you, you will not come after them as a
creditor, and you will not put the bite on them with interest. And if
you take a coat in pledge, you’ll return it at dusk, because that is all
they have to cover themselves, to shelter their bodies. What else do
they have to sleep in?
—And if they cry out to me, I will hear, because I care.”
(Ex.22:20-26, trans.
Professor Earl Schwartz, Hamline University & Jewish Community Action)
THE CRISIS
In Minnesota, the foreclosure crisis has drained billions of dollars of
community wealth in the form of equity, costly social stress and
dislocation, municipal costs, property values and property taxes. During
2010, Minnesotans faced 25,673 foreclosures; while multiple studies have
found that even controlling for differences in income levels, high-cost
mortgages and foreclosures impacted communities of color more than white
communities.
OUR RESPONSE
The Jewish community is no stranger to discrimination, socially and
financially; nor are we strangers to the struggle to end discrimination!
Join us as we continue our work with the Northside Community
Reinvestment Coalition in Minneapolis, and the St Paul Fair Lending
Coalition in St Paul:
-
Participate in a weekly
foreclosure prevention doorknock
-
Attend a Northside
Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) meeting
-
Sit in on a bank
negotiations meeting
-
Lobby elected officials
for fair lending reforms
For more information contact
david@jewishcommunityaction.org
Data sources:
http://www.cura.umn.edu/reporter/07-Summ/Crump.pdf
http://www.ncrc.org/resources/reports-and-research/item/22-income-is-no-shield-part-iii-06/2009
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/rallen/pdf/unraveling_american_dream.pdf
|
HEADLINES
FROM JCA
Community
Reinvestment
Thanks to our volunteers, we’ve identified and sent hand-addressed
letters to over 1,000 Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park homeowners and
tenants, and knocked on over 400 doors to connect people with free
foreclosure and tenants’ rights counseling. We’ve joined with the
Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) as well as allies from
the Hmong, Liberian, Latino and other communities. Together we’ve made
more than 60 referrals of at-risk residents to counseling!
|
