For decades, nonprofit housing and consumer-focused organizations have worked in low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas to address improvident mortgage lending practices that have led to high rates of vacancy and unstable neighborhoods. Questionable lending is not a new problem in LMI areas, in...

Significant regulatory changes affecting credit card terms and conditions were signed into law in May 2009, and took effect in February 2010. A number of these changes will affect lower-income consumers, ostensibly those with few options to "shop" contracts and features in ways that might not...

In the current climate, the mission of HOPI takes on a much higher level of urgency. The graph in Exhibit 1 depicts the sharp increase in foreclosure starts1 city-wide in the past two years in particular. Foreclosure starts in Chicago rose approximately 40 percent from 2006 to 2007; and...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Consumer and Community Affairs department has, since the mid- 1990s, worked with various Seventh District organizations and agencies to address foreclosures and their harmful impact in communities. Most notably, the Reserve Bank has supported and partnered...