Trump appointee guts redlining In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal banking regulator issued new rules May 20 to weaken regulations against redlining without the support of the other two banking regulators: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) action weakens the Community Reinvestment Act, a critical tool for promoting bank investment in low-income communities and communities of color. OCC Comptroller Joseph Otting, a Trump appointee, announced his departure from the agency two days after publishing the final rules.
People in the community are now writing “Black Lives Matter” on doorways, Rodriguez said. “It’s three steps forward, one step back.” “We are 66 percent of the city of Chicago,” Ald. Michael Scott (24th ward) said of the city’s minority population. “We need to bring back 66 percent of the pie because we desperately need it.”
Black and Latino legislators from the city, state and federal level hold a press conference to call for unity in the wake of violence prompted by George Floyd’s death as well as money for youth jobs and training. From left are state Rep. LaShawn Ford in blue shirt, U.S. Reps. Danny K. Davis (in jacket) and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, state Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightfoot (Hillside) in color block, Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th ward) in hat and state Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Hernandez, in black and grey. (Suzanne Hanney photo)
“We are 20 and 12,” Ald. Jason Ervin (28th ward), chairman of the Chicago City Council Black Caucus, said of the 32 respective Black and Latino numbers in the 50-member City Council. “Divided we can’t do anything, but together we can control the legislation, demand and deliver. We have the numbers to make it happen. Do we have the courage?” Assistant Majority Leader Elizabeth Hernandez, a Democrat whose state House district includes Little Village and Cicero, where two bystanders were fatally shot after looting at a nearby liquor store, said it was necessary to see elected officials come together at the rally. “The pain is deep to see our community unravel the way it did. There is so much work to be done in Springfield. We have to come together so those dollars reach our community fairly and with justice.” There is precedent for this work, Hernandez said. State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch (D-Westchester), an African American, was the primary sponsor of the Illinois TRUST Act, which prohibits law enforcement from stopping anyone solely on the basis of immigration status.
Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot commented on the rule proposal in March and again explained her concern about the future of this civil rights law. “While Chicago is battling against an historic threat to our health and economy, the Trump administration is busy attempting to gut laws meant to drive resources to lower-income families – the very families that need our help the most. It is another example of this administration’s misplaced priorities. This great city, whose activists birthed the movement against redlining, will continue to fight so that banks meet the needs of all our neighborhoods, not just the wealthy ones.” Interim Director of the Woodstock Institute Jean Pogge, a former banker, said Otting’s actions “create an unprecedented mish-mash of bank regulations at the least opportune time—a time when the financial sector seeks stability as it is called upon to fight COVID-19.” The Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977 as part of a movement by Chicago activists such as Gale Cincotta and the Woodstock Institute to address discriminatory bank policies blocking non-white neighborhoods from bank loans, a practice known as “redlining.” Numerous organizations in Chicago united to oppose the OCC’s proposed action, including the Woodstock Institute, Housing Action Illinois, Chicago Community Loan Fund, IFF, The Resurrection Project, the Chicago Community Trust, and others. Roughly 15 percent of the comments critical of the proposal came from Illinois. - Suzanne Hanney, from online sources
www.streetwise.org
11
