If selected for publication, a letter to the editor can reach thousands of local residents. You can use this form of communication to influence public opinion about community reinvestment, and to encourage others to join the cause!
Keep your letter short and to the point (250 words or less), and try to explain the issue in a way that anyone could understand, avoiding technical language and uncommon acronyms. You may increase your letter’s chance for publication by linking it to an article that recently ran in the newspaper. Always ask readers to take action on your issue by calling or emailing their elected officials (include a phone number or email address in the body of the letter). Below are examples to use or modify.
Letter to the Editor Sample – Support of CRA
The Community Reinvestment Act is a model for promoting investment and lending for job creation and sustainable homeownership for America. The American Community Investment Reform Act of 2010 (HR 6334), put forward by Representative Luis Gutierrez with Rep. Waters, Rep. Green and Rep. E. Johnson, would expand the legislation to investment banks and mortgage companies.
Expanding CRA is a no brainer to create new lending for small businesses, community development and sustainable homeownership. The law leverages a private sector commitment, so it is deficit neutral. It also requires that lending be done consistent with safety and soundness, so it weeds out bad lending.
Had CRA applied to those institutions that made and purchased the riskiest loans that caused the financial crisis, such as mortgage companies and Wall Street firms, it would have prevented much of the lending that undermined the housing market and damaged the wealth and wellbeing of tens of millions of Americans. CRA should be strengthened and expanded.
Letter to the Editor Sample – Defense of CRA
The idea that the Community Reinvestment Act forced lenders to make loans available to less than creditworthy borrowers has no basis in fact or experience. From economists like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, bipartisan experts have all concluded that CRA played no role in the housing crisis. Blaming CRA is more about politics than sound economic policy.
If, as critics claim, CRA forced banks to make bad loans, then wouldn’t those loans be disproportionately subprime and more prone to foreclosure? But the exact opposite is true. According to Federal Reserve research, 94 percent of subprime loans were not covered by CRA. Loans not covered by CRA are twice as likely to go into foreclosure.
What’s more, by statute, CRA requires that loans be consistent with “safety and soundness,” and penalizes abusive lending practices that became commonplace sectors of the market not covered by CRA.
Had CRA applied to those institutions that purveyed and purchased the riskiest loans, such as mortgage companies and Wall Street firms, it would have prevented much of the lending that undermined the housing market and damaged the wealth and wellbeing of tens of millions of Americans. CRA should be strengthened and expanded to these institutions, as proposed by the American Community Investment Reform Act of 2010 (HR 6334).
Don’t forget to include your contact information with your letter, so that the newspaper can call you for verification.
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