Woodstock Institute

We appreciate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigating the recent increase in mortgage closing costs, which can put homeownership further out of reach for many borrowers. In our comment letter, we urge the Bureau to apply a racial equity lens to this work. In our breakdown of the mortgage process with Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, we found that marked racial disparities in mortgage costs make buying a home more expensive for households of color. Further analysis shows these costs have increased more in the last 5 years for Black & Latine borrowers as compared to all borrowers. https://lnkd.in/gWW8GiaC

Lower-income families could be paying payment processors 60 cents for every dollar they spend on school lunches. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new report shows how hard-to-avoid junk fees are being tacked onto children’s lunch payments: https://lnkd.in/g4SBU9GC

We are still #hiring! Know anyone who might be interested?

THIS SATURDAY: We're teaming up with Chicago Urban League on their annual Back to School Fest! In addition to the usual activities, Woodstock will be inviting safe and responsible financial service providers to ensure families can access key resources they need for a successful school year. Share far and wide with families in your orbit who may be interested! Register here: https://t.co/EXwG0hmGkC

Props to Partnership for Financial Equity and Woodstock's research team, Carrie Craig, MPP, Amber S. Hendley, & Sukriti Sood for their work on this!

Homeownership Programs allows qualified families to use their housing subsidy to buy a home and receive monthly assistance with a portion of their mortgage payment. Data in our recent report, Roots to Grow, shows that if just 10% of current voucher holders had access to the program, there would be over 230,000 new homeownership opportunities across the country and about 6,300 new homeownership opportunities in Chicago. To learn more about this and other findings, download the full report at: www.cafha.net/research Thanks to the Woodstock Institute for their partnership on this report.

"Keeping the call center open was a key negotiating point for the Woodstock Institute, one of four advocacy organizations involved in shaping the plan. 'There were a lot of fears that it would be shut down,' said Horacio Mendez, president of the Woodstock Institute. 'We not only were able to introduce Capital One to that call center … we got them to commit to growing the facility to the expected goal of 1,000 jobs.'" https://lnkd.in/gNwrdkf5

We're proud to have worked with Capital One in the development of their historic $265b community benefits plan. These investments, alongside Capital One's commitment to fair and responsible lending, and to collaborate on advocacy issues and policies, represent a key step forward for advancing equity in our financial sector. We look forward to working with Capital One in the coming years to ensure that the plan fulfills its commitments to lower income neighborhoods and communities of color. https://lnkd.in/gC-VDfzd