Ruane v. Bank of America, N.A. et al.
Click here to watch our Co-Director Sarah Ludwig and Staff Attorney Raúl Carrillo discuss this case on NY1’s Inside City Hall.
financial justice
May
2019
14
Greetings from Paydayfreelandia!
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today advocates from states across the country that ban predatory payday lending voiced strong opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s actions to gut federal rules to curb predatory payday lending.
March
2019
29
CBS News: New Yorkers Say State Agency Snatched Their Tax Refunds
CBS News — David Evans, a 59-year-old New Yorker, was making a modest living working as a messenger and enjoying a state tax refund of $150 or $200. But in the last four years, his refund hasn’t been coming through, Evans told CBS News.
March
2019
28
City Limits: NY Can Reduce Redlining’s Residue by Backing Credit Unions
City Limits, Op-ed by Yuh-Line Niou and Maureen Genna — A Bloomberg report this month showed that the largest banks in the U.S., led by JPMorgan Chase, are closing branches rapidly in poor neighborhoods, even as they open new ones in affluent communities. In other news: water is wet.
March
2019
19
Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Brooklyn Facing Crisis in Housing Theft and Foreclosures, Advocates Say
Brooklyn Daily News — As real estate values in Brooklyn have gone through the roof, homeowners in gentrifying black and brown communities in the borough are increasingly being targeted by housing predators, legislators were told on Friday at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
February
2019
28
Gothamist: NYC Economic Justice Groups Refuse To Meet With Trump’s Consumer Financial Protections Bureau Head
Gothamist — In its original conception, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) exists to impose oversight on our market such that you, the consumer, don’t get grifted by investors and lenders. Like so many other government institutions, however, the Trump Administration has turned that concept on its head. On Thursday, ahead of a scheduled meeting with the CFBP director, a collection of economic justice groups announced in an open letter that they would not take a seat at the table.
February
2019
28
Letter to CFPB Director Kraninger, Explaining Why We Declined Her Invitation to a New York Meeting
A letter explaining our decision to decline an invitation to meet in New York City. Under normal circumstances, we would certainly meet with the head of an important agency, even if we disagreed with policies the agency was pursuing. But the current situation is anything but normal.
February
2019
27
Foreclosure Crisis Far from Over for NYC Neighborhoods of Color
More than a decade after the financial meltdown, how secure are New Yorkers from the threat of foreclosure? Our recent issue brief seeks to answer this question, based on our analysis of pre-foreclosure notices that mortgage servicers are required to send homeowners at least 90 days before filing a foreclosure action in New York State courts.
February
2019
25
Patch: MTA Took BK Veteran’s Tax Refunds For Decades-Old Ticket: Lawsuit
Patch — A few years ago, Brooklyn veteran David Evans got something strange in the mail — a notice that the MTA would be taking hundreds of dollars from his tax returns to pay for tickets from nearly 20 years ago.
February
2019
20
Gothamist: The MTA Is Allegedly Seizing Tax Refunds From Poor NYers Over Decades-Old Infractions
Gothamist — While not particularly good at executing major capital projects or managing a budget or even running trains much of the time, the MTA is apparently very adept at squeezing money out of low-income riders.
February
2019
19
Daily News: The Ultimate Unfair Fares: The MTA is Seizing the Tax Refunds and Wages of Poor New Yorkers to Settle Decades-Old Debts
Daily News — It turns out that the same MTA that fails, frustrates and delays New Yorkers daily shows astounding, relentless energy when it comes to seizing the tax refunds and slapping liens on the wages of subway customers accused of breaking low-level rules like smoking on a platform or riding between cars.