February
2021
2
The City Council has passed legislation charting the course for ending New York City’s tax lien sale, and replacing it with an equitable municipal debt collection system that preserves affordable housing and stabilizes Black and brown NYC neighborhoods.
Thank you to those who joined us for our 2020 holiday party!
October
2020
30
New Economy Project was thrilled to connect recently with Africatown Community Land Trust in Seattle, WA, to learn about its work on community land ownership as a tool for reparations and racial justice. The conversation was the latest in a series of learning exchanges we are organizing between NYC Community Land Initiative partners and CLTs around the country.
October
2020
22
The City — New York’s pandemic pause on a program that sells unpaid city property debts to investors has community advocates calling to scrap the Giuliani-era approach altogether.
October
2020
5
ProPublica — Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector.
October
2020
1
Yesterday, a federal judge certified a class action charging the NYC Transit Authority, an arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), with systemic due process violations. The civil rights lawsuit challenges the Transit Authority’s unlawful seizures of New Yorkers’ state tax refunds to collect on default judgments—some going back 20 years or more—without providing legally-required notice or a fair opportunity to contest the judgments.
September
2020
30
Fortune — Over 6% of Americans—20.5 million people—are unbanked, according to the FDIC’s latest data, meaning they have no checking or savings account. Nearly 50 million more are underbanked: They have at least one bank account but still use alternative financial services like payday loans and check cashers outside the banking system.
September
2020
29
City Limits — The City Council is considering measures that would scrutinize the city’s relationship with corporate banks and other financial entities—disclosures that could pave the pathway to creating a municipal public bank in the future.
September
2020
23
Today, a citywide coalition of labor and community groups and community-based financial institutions joined with NYS Senators, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, and NYC Council Members to call for the creation of a public bank in NYC.
September
2020
22
From coast to coast, a growing number of community land trusts (CLTs) are creating deeply-affordable housing, preventing displacement, and advancing self-determination in Black and brown communities. As the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates racial and economic inequality, and leaves millions at risk of eviction and homelessness, this work is more urgent than ever.