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Public Bank NYC Coalition Renews Calls For Public Bank As City Council Member Keith Powers Reintroduces The People’s Bank Act
The People’s Bank Act, a package of bills that would lay the foundation for a public bank in New York City, was officially reintroduced today for the 2024-2025 New York City Council legislative session.
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Statement from the NYS Community Equity Agenda Coalition on CFPB’s Proposed Overdraft Rule
“We applaud the CFPB for issuing a strong proposed rule to crack down on big banks’ predatory overdraft fees, which have long exploited low-income New Yorkers and extracted massive sums from low-income neighborhoods and communities of color…”
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Advocates Win Far-Reaching Appellate Court Victory Challenging Abusive Debt Collection
Advocates won a unanimous decision in the Appellate Division, First Department, upending over a decade of bad case law that enabled unscrupulous debt collectors to extract massive amounts of wealth from low-income neighborhoods. The decision will rein in widespread debt collection schemes to fraudulently garnish wages and freeze bank accounts in violation of New Yorkers’ constitutional due process…
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New Research Finds Big Banks Holding City Deposits Guilty of Modern Day Redlining
…The coalition called for the creation of a public bank to divest public money from banks that harm communities, and reinvest in community wealth-building and high-quality financial services in neighborhoods of color….
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New Research Shows Nonprofits Vastly Outdid For-Profits in Creation of Deeply Affordable Housing
As New Yorkers grapple with skyrocketing rents and homelessness, more than 20 community, affordable housing, and environmental justice groups joined local elected officials to rally at City Hall in support of the Community Land Act – a set of bills to bring land and housing into permanently-affordable community control, through community land trusts (CLTs) and…
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Court Grants Final Approval of Settlement in Class Action Lawsuit Reining In NYC Transit Authority’s Unfair Collection Practices
A federal court granted final approval of a settlement in a class action lawsuit charging the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), an arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), with aggressively going after thousands of New Yorkers for alleged debts in violation of their constitutional due process rights.
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Attorney General James Highlights Deep Racial Gaps in Homeownership Across New York
New York Attorney General Letitia James released a new report today detailing deep racial disparities in homeownership and access to home financing across the state. Among the report’s top findings is a stark racial gap in homeownership rates in every region in New York, with white households owning their homes at nearly double the rate of households…
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Statement from the NYS Community Equity Agenda Coalition on Today’s Oral Arguments in SCOTUS Case on CFPB Funding
Today, as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, members of the New York State Community Equity Agenda coalition released the following statements:
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New Economy Appeals Court Ruling that Harms NYer and Stacks Deck in Favor of Predatory Debt Collectors
A debt collector obtained a default judgment against Sharae Banks through fraud, falsely claiming that it had properly notified her when it sued her years earlier. A lower court then barred Ms. Banks from challenging the default judgment, upholding the debt collector’s blatant violations of her basic due process rights. New Economy Project has filed…
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MTA To Rein in Unfair Collection Practices Under Settlement in Federal Class Action Challenging Systemic Violations of Low-Income New Yorkers’ Civil Rights
A federal court granted preliminary approval of a settlement in a class action lawsuit charging the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), an arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), with aggressively going after thousands of New Yorkers for alleged debts in violation of their constitutional due process rights.
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Once Again, Albany Prioritizes Big Banks and Real Estate Over New York Communities
This year’s legislative session followed an all-too-familiar pattern of monied interests driving the state’s legislative agenda at the expense of working class New Yorkers. Our coalition strongly denounces Albany’s failure to enact the New York Public Banking Act (S1754/A3352), which would create a framework for local public banks that would leverage public deposits toward investments…
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Community Groups, Tenants, and Electeds Rally at City Hall for Legislation, Funding to Expand Community Land Trusts
In the wake of Albany’s failure to address the affordable housing crisis, more than 50 community, housing, and environmental justice groups and elected officials gathered at City Hall Park to call on the City to enact the Community Land Act, a slate of bills to expand community control of land and permanently-affordable housing in low-income Black…