June. It's the time of year when we break out our neon flip flops, inflate the beach balls that have been slowly deflating in the solitary confines of our storage closets, and get sunburns we hope and pray will turn into a decent tan (friendly reminder: wear sunscreen!). However, for many Hoosiers, it's also a month to celebrate and embrace their identity.

Earlier this month, thousands of Hoosiers celebrated Pride by parading through the streets of Indianapolis with rainbow flags and apparel, expressing love for their brethren who identify as LGBTQ+. The display of support for the LGBTQ+ community was inspiring and heartwarming for me. However, many groups at the festivities brought attention to the difficulties facing the LGBTQ+ community, including high suicide rates, increased housing instability, and violence. 

It's important to bring the financial and asset development difficulties facing the community as well.

For members of the LGBTQ+ community, 60 percent say they have less than three months of emergency savings. Furthermore, according to a 2018 TD Ameritrade survey, only 29 percent of LGBTQ+ millennials felt financially secure, with a different poll citing one-in-four queer individuals reporting their identity has impacted their finances.

While we work together to advance the opportunities available to Hoosiers across the state, we must remember to include everyone. I hope you'll join me and the Network as we move together with everyone - regardless of race, religion, age, sexual orientation - in mind.

Although most states, including Indiana, enjoyed a slow-growth of the middle class between 2016 - 2017,  a staggering number of households have not recovered to the levels of 2000. Since the Great Recession of 2008, the middle class has not rebounded financially as well as economists would have hoped, leading to growing concern from experts.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago hosted a conference to discuss the financial struggles of the middle class, with Chairman Jerome Powell saying, “The kind of generational improvements in living standards that were long the hallmark of the American middle class have steadily diminished.”

To read the full article,click here.

Two years ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rolled out new protections for consumers nationwide which required lenders to ensure a borrower could repay a loan before granting it (and only after a consumer has taken out six loans in one year). However, the tides are turning in favor of payday lenders. 

Under a new proposed CFPB rule, lenders would not be required to comply with this very modest protection for borrowers stuck in a cycle of debt. These loans undermine Hoosier consumers' financial security, taking direct access to borrowers' bank accounts and draining $60 million in fees alone from Indiana each year. We must work to reform predatory lending and lift our voices against the repeal of this common sense, urgently needed protection.

We need the CFPB to hear from you by EOD:

How you can help:

• Contact the CFPB and express your opposition to this proposal. 

• • Submit a brief commentvoicing your objection to the CFPB's proposed rule and how it has impacted the communities/consumers you serve.

  • Sign on to a national letter in opposition of this proposal.

• Please share this request on social media and voice your concerns directly to the CFPB (@CFPB) and Director Kraninger (@CFPBDirector).

To learn more about predatory lending and consumer financial protections in Indiana, contact Logan Charlesworth, Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network Manager. 

According to “Bound: How Race Shapes the Outcomes of American Cities,” a new study from Prosperity Now which uses the most recent city-level data from the Prosperity Now Scorecard, more than 80 percent of U.S. residents now living in a metropolitan area. However, the benefits of living in these densely populated areas are not shared equally, especially when it comes to the economic well-being of different racial groups. 

Researchers discovered that residential segregation remains one of the main forces driving disparity amongst racial groups. This is often manifested via a one-sided process of self-selection. To read more the full report,click here.  

Join the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network for a webinar featuring A&O Steering Committee Member Jake Brown, Assistant Vice President and Manager, CRA at First Merchants Bank, for a discussion on getting the most out of the community reinvestment act (CRA), the changes being discussed at the federal level, and more. 

Click here to access the webinar.

About the Presenter:

Jake supports the development of a comprehensive community development strategy for all assessment areas, including but not limited to: home ownership/improvement initiatives, single-family and multi-family affordable housing, and small business/small farm.  This includes establishing, participating and maintaining effective relationships with community development based, charitable, and non-profit partners, developing community development services and  remaining abreast of developments in CRA, including industry trends, best practices and emerging knowledge. Jake also develops and maintains a comprehensive performance context to identify community development needs, opportunities, and provide subject matter expertise on community development issues.

Homeownership is one of the key ways families build assets. In order to lead strong, stable lives, families need to be able to buy or rent stable housing, which is the fundamental purpose of the fair housing laws. Like most everything in life, this topic is complicated.  It is not just about buying or renting the home of your choice, but also affording the home of your choice. Unfortunately, lots of things stand in the way of that goal.

The cycle can start when you are only a child.  If you live in a low-to-moderate income neighborhood, there is a good chance you won’t have the most well-funded schools in your district, which then make it difficult for you to get the quality education that you deserve, which, in turn, makes it difficult to get the job opportunities that will allow you to be able to afford the home of your choice.  Since access to good employment opportunities is often dependent upon who you know, being in a neighborhood without anyone in the field you wish to enter may hurt your chances of getting the job you desire.

And what if you do overcome those issues and do get a great job opportunity? Maybe you are now looking to purchase your first home.  Where are the affordable first homes located?  Often times, they may still be in your current neighborhood or a neighborhood very similar.  One of the reason is zoning issues.  Many localities or neighborhood association bylaws do not allow affordable homes in certain neighborhoods just because of the conditions they require.  The strict conditions can include the amount of land that needs to be allocated to each house, the amount of brick that has to be on a home, or the fact that every vehicle needs to be in a garage, making the price of these homes out of reach for many of our potential homeowners. Unfortunately, the situation is not any more rosy for those living in rental housing trying to save for their first home in order to build assets.

And so the cycle continues. 

Fair housing laws cover whether or not there is redlining, or families are only shown certain housing opportunities or landlords make it difficult to rent, all of which are very important, but we need to remember that there are also underlying conditions and regulations that make asset building harder for low-to-moderate income families.  We need to think about how to allow them the opportunity to make connections, have access to a good education, transportation to good job opportunities, and access to the skills that can make that happen. 

We need to break the cycle.

Marie Morse, Executive Director of HomesteadCS

Legislators declined to vote on Senate Bill 613, a bill that would have devastated vulnerable Hoosier consumers with crippling interest rates on short-term loans,  effectively KILLING THE BILL!

This victory for Hoosier consumers would not have been possible without YOU! Your calls, letters, meetings with legislators, moving testimony, and questions at third house meetings made all the difference. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVOCACY!

Don't forget to thank all of the lawmakers who stood in opposition to this bill through their votes in the Senate and House Financial Institutions Committees, and on the Senate floor.

To learn more about how you can get involved in the fight against predatory lending in Indiana, contact Logan Charlesworth, Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network Manager. 

Dear Members of the Indiana General Assembly,

The undersigned organizations ask for your support to establish a 36 percent APR cap on small loans in Indiana. These loans are currently offered at rates of up to 391 percent APR. We also ask you to reject any bills establishing new loan products or expanding the allowable fees or interest on existing loan products if they exceed this 36 percent threshold, and apply the 36 percent threshold only to small loans.  

The negative effects of high-cost loan products are well-documented. A large body of research has demonstrated that high-cost loans create a long-term debt trap that drains consumers' bank accounts and causes significant financial harm, including delinquency and default, overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees, increased difficulty paying mortgages, rent, and other bills, loss of checking accounts and bankruptcy. Indiana currently has one of the highest bankruptcy rates in the country. The Indiana General Assembly is well positioned to strengthen consumer protections for Hoosier consumers and improve economic well-being by capping loans at 36 percent.

Thus far, provisions in the state's small loans statute, such as warning notices, renewal bans, and cooling off periods have been insufficient to adequately protect consumers. In Indiana, 60 percent of borrowers take out a new small loans the same day they repay their old loan. Within 30 days, 82 percent have re-borrowed. The average borrower takes out 8-10 loans per year, paying over $400 in interest to repeatedly borrow $300. In 2017, these loans drained Indiana's economy of an estimated $60 million in abusive finance charges — a statewide issue that extends far beyond the negative effects individuals may suffer from these products.  

Approving legislation that caps APR at 36 percent is the most effective protection the state government can offer to all borrowers, especially payday borrowers. When payday lending was, effectively, banned in states that introduced rate cap bills of 36 percent or lower, former borrowers reported that their lives were better than when they had access to payday loans. Notable examples include North Carolina and Arkansas, which in 2006 and 2009 established 36 percent and 17 percent rate caps, respectively. Researchers studying the effects of the rate cap and the effective banning of payday lending in North Carolina concluded that the absence of storefront payday lending had "no significant impact on the availability of credit" among former borrowers. Further, former borrowers were twice as likely to report that they were better off without payday lending. Military families are also protected by a 36 percent APR rate cap.

In the wake of the defeat of SB 104 and the state senate’s passing of SB 613, Hoosiers from around the state have been standing up and voicing their concerns. Here are a few of the articles we’ve compiled (listed in order of publication date): This page will be updated periodically.

The Republic(February 19, 2019)
Indy Star(February 26, 2019)
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette(February 26, 2019)
WTHR(February 26, 2019)
FOX 59(February 26, 2019)
Indiana Senate Democrats(February 26, 2019)
South Bend Tribune(February 27, 2019)
Kokomo Tribune(February 28, 2019)
Statehouse File(February 28, 2019)
WTHR(March 1, 2019)
Indy Star(March 4, 2019)
South Bend Tribune (March 5, 2019)
Indianapolis Star (March 7, 2019)
Indiana Lawmaker(March 8, 2019)
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (March 9, 2019)
Courier & Press (March 9, 2019)
Statehouse File(March 11, 2019)
CBS 4 Indy (March 11, 2019)
WFYI (March 11, 2019)
Indiana Public Media (March 11, 2019)
Chicago Tribune (March 12, 2019)
WISH-TV (March 12, 2019)
The Republic (March 13, 2019)
Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly(March 15, 2019)
Indianapolis Business Journal (March 15, 2019)
Star Press (March 15, 2019)
The Chicago Crusader (March 21, 2019)
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (March 24, 2019)
Public News Service(March 25, 2019)
The Republic (March 25, 2019)
Indianapolis Business Journal (March 29, 2019)
Indianapolis Star (March 31, 2019)
The Statehouse File (April 9, 2019)
Indianapolis Star (April 9, 2019)
Fox 59 (April 9, 2019)
Indianapolis Business Journal (April 10, 2019)
Indiana Public Media (April 10, 2019)
Terre Haute Tribune Star (April 10, 2019)

In cities across the nation, the racial wealth gap is increasing each day, and marginalized communities are being left behind. According to the African-American Financial Capability Initiative, a coalition comprised of more than 30 organizations across the nation, the racial wealth gap has  grown three-fold in the past 25 years.

Community-centered financial stability pilot projects were implemented in six cities (Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Tacoma, Washington) in an effort to strengthen asset-building services; sharpen policy advocacy strategies; and grow leadership capacity to benefit local communities.

Read about the initiative and the results byclicking here.