5 years ago NPA began addressing a new issue after noticing new kinds of bad loan abuses: Predatory Mortgage Lending. Given NPA’s long history of working to fight Federal Housing Administration (FHA) abuses, NPA dove into the issue of predatory lending after documenting an increased number of foreclosures. The issue of predatory lending nationally was a new concept, and NPA moved quickly into action by launching a series of neighborhood trainings across the country in affiliate cities, engaging not only community residents but the banking industry as well.

4years ago, NPA held a Predatory Lending Conference, the first of its kind, attended by over 200 community residents, organizers, lenders, researchers and industry leaders, representing 51 organizations from nine states. That year NPA also released its nationally recognized study, “Preying on Neighborhoods,” the first national study that linked the increase of foreclosures to the increase in subprime lending.

3years ago, after receiving hundreds of complaints, NPA affiliates in Central Illinois, Indianapolis and Cleveland decided to target The Associates for their bad lending practices. Immediately following, Citigroup announced they were purchasing The Associates.

21/2 years ago, NPA launched a campaign against Citigroup – the largest bank in the world and...

1year ago, We Won! After lots of action, numerous NPA leadership meetings, including several with the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC, the release of “Reinventing Redlining,” a study that documented CitiFinancial’s bad lending practices across the country and over six months of direct, face-to-face negotiations, NPA signed a historic partnership with CitiFinancial. This agreement means that they will stop predatory lending in our neighborhoods and fix the bad loans they’ve made in our communities!! They will even review and repair loans that are in foreclosure.

Also, one year ago, on their way to NPA’s 32nd Annual Conference, neighborhood leaders representing Cleveland’s East Side Organizing Project (ESOP) made a pit stop at an Ohio attorney’s office that handles a large number of FairbanksCapital Corporation's foreclosures and launched a national campaign against the mortgage servicer. Fairbanks is the country’s largest predatory mortgage servicer and is known for its misapplication of payments, forced imposition of insurance, excessive fees, harassment and threatening foreclosure. In July, Fairbanks began negotiations with NPA and agreed to use NPA’s “Fairbanks Hot Spot Card” to review and repair the loans they service. NPA is currently finalizing the details of a partnership with Fairbanks and will announce the agreement at this year’s annual conference.

Now, NPA’s predatory lending team has turned its attention to Capitol Hill. We can keep the loan sharks at bay, but to keep them permanently away we need a strong bill today!! At this year’s Predatory Lending Workshop, NPA will join forces with the investor community - those folk who control how the money flows in the mortgage lending industry - to construct a strong loan shark bill to take to Capitol Hill!