Wins for the 99%
Advancing Transparency in Lending
National People's Action spearheaded efforts to pass the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (1975), which required banks to disclose to the public the census tract and race of the people they were making loans to and denying loans to. The law helped prove what people in neighborhood knew, banks were redlining and denying loans to be people based on where they lived, regardless of the credit worthiness.Making the Market Work
National People's Action led the way to pass the Community Reinvestment Act (1977), which outlawed bank redlining, resulting in trillions of dollars of capital being invested in low- and moderate-income communities across the country. Loans covered by the CRA have been among the best performing mortgages over the last decade.Creating Safe Neighborhoods
National People's Action worked with neighborhood organizations throughout the country to develop strategies to reduce crime and drug use in neighborhoods, creating safer neighborhoods for families.Improving Government Programs
National People's Action worked to get the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a program to monitor lenders using the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Loan Program. The program, Credit Watch (1999), penalizes lenders with extraordinarily high default rates.Housing Justice
Compelled the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create the Homebuyer Protection Plan (1999), a series of reforms designed to ensure people buying homes with FHA loans get proper inspections and appraisals before buying home. The reforms we helped secure at HUD benefit one million families each year.Combating Predatory Lending
National People's Action was one of the first organizations in the country to spot predatory lending in neighborhoods. The organization succeeded in getting multiple national financial institutions (1999 - 2003) to createinternal policies to protect against predatory lending. NPA also helped spearhead a coalition that passed the regulations in Chicago and in Illinois to regulate the payday lending industry.Helping Families Save their Homes
National Peoples Action developed a foreclosure prevention program (2001 – 2008) that helped connected distressed borrowers with a number of national lenders and services. The program helped thousands of borrowers save their homes.The Fight for Financial Reform
NPA moved more people into the street in the fight for financial reform than any organizations in the country. The passage of Dodd-Frank Bill helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will is designed to protect families and communities from fraudulent and abusive financial practices. Also, NPA pushed for Dodd-Frank to include an expanded and modernized Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, requiring banks not only to disclose the race and census tract of who they approve and deny loans to, but also now the quality and terms of the loans that they make.Justice for the Formerly Incarcerated
The Housing Justice Movement and allies worked with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to release informal guidance, which allows formerly incarcerated individuals to have access to federally-subsidized housing. Releasing informal guidance is the first step in restoring fair and equal access to public housing and reunites formerly incarcerated individuals with their families while decreasing economic stress.The Nation magazine awarded NPA Most Valuable Grassroots Activism of 2010.
