Faith-Based Group Wins Big for Homeowners
By Bill Vandenberg
As economic inequities in the United States continue to fester, let's take a moment to stop and celebrate a hard-fought, first-in-the-nation victory that helps families in San Jose, California, keep their homes.
Open Society Foundations grantee PICO, one of the nation's largest faith-based social justice organizing networks, was instrumental in the formulation of San Jose's new policy that ties the level of city investment that a bank receives to the bank's practices around preventing foreclosures.
The policy led the city to withdraw nearly one billion in public dollars from Bank of America, based on the B of A's poor record of modifying loans to stop preventable foreclosures. As a result, B of A is no longer the largest bank in Silicon Valley. The city is now investing its public dollars in banks committed to modifying loans to help stop preventable foreclosures.
We hope other U.S. cities follow San Jose's lead and adopt investment policies that hold banks accountable and support ethical policies and practices to keep families in their homes and rebuild the economy. Congratulations, PICO!
PICO is a grantee of Open Society Democracy and Power Fund, Seize the Day Fund, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative.
Bill Vandenberg is division director for Learning and Impact for Open Society-U.S. at the Open Society Foundations.