We Own It Calls On Credit Union CEOs to Keep People In Their Homes

MADISON, Wis. - Sept. 29, 2020 - PRLog -- We Own It called upon credit unions across the country to make emergency loans to keep people in their homes.

America's 5,200 member-owned credit unions have a combined $185 billion of retained earnings. $56 billion of this capital is in excess of what is required by regulation. This is capital owned democratically by 120 million Americans that they need now to keep themselves and their neighbors in their homes during an unprecedented eviction crisis in the midst of the COVID pandemic, in the absence of federal action or a functioning moratorium on evictions.

"Credit unions and their member-owners didn't cause this eviction crisis, but we have the power to keep people in their homes - $56 billion in available capital - and with that power comes the responsibility to act," said Schlachter.

In August, the Aspen Institute estimated that, without a new moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, 30 to 40 million Americans -- 80% of them people of color -- would face eviction in the coming months due to unemployment caused by the COVID Depression and the expiration of expanded unemployment benefits by the federal government.

"This is an extremely urgent racial justice issue flying beneath the radar," said Virginia-based organizer Daniel Mintz, who has begun a petition drive calling on Richmond-based Virginia Credit Union to start an emergency anti-eviction lending program. "Richmond has the second highest rate of evictions in the country. We need Virginia Credit Union CEO Chris Shockley to put $20 million of the co-op's excess member-owned capital towards emergency loans and keeping people in their homes now."

A credit union is a cooperative bank, democratically owned by the people who bank there, who are called members or member-owners.  Most of America's credit unions were founded in the 1930s during the Great Depression. When investor-owned banks refused to lend to working people, ordinary Americans -- often less than a dozen around a kitchen table or in a church basement -- came together to form their own cooperative banks to lend to each other.  These credit unions have now matured beyond their founders' wildest hopes, with 360 having hundreds of thousands of members and worth over $1 billion.  Collectively, the 5,200 credit unions across the US have $1.7 trillion in assets and count 120 million member-owners.

This excess capital is essentially a "rainy day fund", now $56 billion and growing.  We Own It has also published a spreadsheet at https://i.weown.it/cu_info with detailed information.