CRC Celebrates 20 Years of Community Reinvestment

This year’s celebration of California Reinvestment at the Lake Merritt Hotel in Oakland was an extra special affair – not only did the California Reinvestment Coalition recognize some amazing community advocates, we commemorated our 20th anniversary.   

CRC started as a small ad hoc group who saw a need for banks to reinvest in California communities. They were some of the first advocates in the state to negotiate reinvestment commitments from the nation’s largest banks. CRC honored these originators at the Oakland event, where they spoke of the need to continue to fight for fair financial services in all California communities, and expressed their pride in the organization and its growth.

More than 200 people attended the event on April 20, and took home a small bamboo tree from CRC. The gift is said to bring good fortune to families and homes, and symbolized the efforts of CRC and its members to do the same. The highlight of the evening, however, was the Screaming Eagle Awards presentation. Hearing about the award recipients and their compassion to help under-served communities truly illustrated the positive impacts of community reinvestment.

Patricia Constantine of the San Antonio Community Development Corporation was honored with a Screaming Eagle Award for her creative advocacy and motivation to help low-income communities access fairly-priced financial services. Patricia is a tireless worker who provides asset-building information and assistance to the Lower San Antonio neighborhood residents in Oakland. She also operates a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site where she has signed up innumerable clients for bank accounts, helping them receive their refund quickly without having to purchase a Refund Anticipation Loan or pay check cashing fees.

Bill Oswald from the San Diego Coalition for Fair Banking was given a Screaming Eagle Award for his strong leadership to increase  access to banking services for all people. Bill led the San Diego Coalition to achieve: a bank account for low-income customers offered by three banks; a working relationship with the City’s public officials concerned with the proliferation of payday lenders and check cashers; and an expansion of the Coalition to widen community participation. Bill is also spearheading the Coalition’s asset development planning.

And finally, Northeast Community Federal Credit Union received a Screaming Eagle Award for offering new avenues to fairly priced financial services in low-income communities. The credit union is a great resource for low-income people in San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods – Chinatown, the Tenderloin, Visitation Valley and the South of Market. The credit union delivers lifeline financial services, anti-predatory loans and financial literacy in these neighborhoods, focusing its outreach to the unbanked, who are extrememly at risk to predatory financial services.

CRC was very pleased to honor such incredible community heroes at our 20th Anniversary celebration. We will continue to work with these and other community advocates to improve the economic vitality of all California communities.