[Teacher317]

"We do not want to let an organization with a track record like this become more powerful without reaffirming its commitment to communities."

Interesting that they think that they "allow" companies to succeed and fail... and that some dopey "commitment to communities" signature is in any way legally binding upon the compeny, expecially when the "contract" has no considerations for the company (unless they were alluding to a boycott of some kind that they would no longer perform... which seems a lot more like extortion. It would be better if they said they would once again solicit the company's business.)

[cupcakes]

"We do not want to let an organization with a track record like this become more powerful without reaffirming its commitment to communities."

Perhaps if these communities would make a committment to the bank by actually paying their mortgages(or at least rents for their credit history) and keep their credit history clean, this would not be a problem. When I met my husband, as caucasian as they come, he could not be approved for a home either. He had to pay off some things first and write letters for things that were still on there. My guess is that hispanics and blacks could do the same except I tend to wonder based on reactions to other areas if some think they are being discriminated against because they might actually have to *gasp* clean up their credit first or come up with more money down because of their credit risk and don't even try at all and would rather go home to some crappy apartment and complain about how the *man* is keeping him/her down. I think perhaps many don't have enough family experience with home ownership and how banking/interest rates work to understand that you are graded based on credit scores and those scores are color-blind. Next it is based on income and I'm sorry, but unless you are coming with a chunk of change showing you are willing to take a risk, you are not going to get a bank to finance you for a 100k home making 8 bucks an hour.