As part of NCRC’s #TreasureCRA campaign to protect and strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), SLEHCRA members have been working to build grassroots and official support for protecting the CRA from potentially harmful changes.

The St. Louis community is one with a longstanding history of advocacy for more equitable access to banking services. From the famous Jefferson Bank protests to the current work of SLEHCRA, St. Louisans have long been striving to improve our community and reinvest in areas that have been redlined. As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) looks to make potentially significant changes to how the CRA is enforced, we are once again stepping up to promote reinvestment in low to moderate income communities and communities of color.

The City of St. Louis passed Resolution 97 in support of a strong CRA. The lead sponsor of the city’s resolution was Ald. Marlene Davis. After the passage of the resolution, Ald. Davis said “I sponsored this resolution in favor of CRA on behalf of the residents of the City of St. Louis because it’s the right thing to do!  Any time profits are being made by servicing the financial matters of our citizens, rules like CRA keep the process equitable for the community and the financial institutions.” Additionally,  the Vaughn Tenant Association, Urban 21, Moorish Science Temple #5 and Kingdom Women Ministries all passed resolutions of support. 

SLEHCRA is continuing to pursue more resolutions in support of protecting and strengthening the CRA. We thank all of the organizations and elected officials who have already shown that they #TreasureCRA. If your organization or municipality would be interested in also passing a resolution in support, please contact SLEHCRA for suggested resolution language.

SLEHCRA is also working to make sure that St. Louisans submit comment letters to the regulator considering altering the CRA. This is one of the most important things we can do to impact the regulatory process. Please consider taking a few minutes to submit a letter during this public comment period. For sample language to help you draft your comment, as well as steps to submitting a comment, please check out this great resource from NCRC.