NEDAP News | Vol. 2 Issue 1 | January 2007

Welcome to the January 2007 edition of NEDAP News

• NEDAP Turns up the Heat on Predatory Tax Refund Loans
• Community Training and Advocacy Roundup
• NEDAP Staff & Board Updates
• NEDAP Thanks its Donors

NEDAP Turns up the Heat on Predatory Tax Refund Loans

As the 2007 tax season gets underway, NEDAP renewed its call for the elimination of tax Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs), usurious loans made against people's expected tax refunds and Earned Income Tax Credits.  Highlights of NEDAP's anti-RALs activities in January include:

• NEDAP issued a report, "Predatory Tax Time Loans Strip $324 Million from New York City's Poorest Communities: An Analysis of Tax Refund Lending in NYC, 2002-2005."  Analyzing IRS data, NEDAP found that RALs were overwhelmingly concentrated in neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Central and Northeast Brooklyn, Central and East Harlem, and Southeast Queens.  In some zip codes, more than 1 in 4 taxpayers received a RAL. 

• NEDAP joined groups from across the country to call on Jackson Hewitt, the nation's second largest tax prep chain, to stop making RALs.  NEDAP and its allies -- Woodstock Institute, California Reinvestment Coalition, Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina and New Jersey Citizen Action -- delivered their message in front of the company's headquarters in Parsippany, NJ.  

• NEDAP's report was the featured cover story in AM-NewYork, which reaches hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.  NEDAP was also cited on RALs in numerous articles that ran in publications throughout the country, from the Syracuse Post-Standard and Caribbean Life to the Washington Post and dozens of other news outlets.   

Community Training and Advocacy Roundup

In January, NEDAP:

• Participated in a NYC Council press conference to alert New Yorkers about abusive practices of rent-to-own stores.  NEDAP's research was featured in the City Council's investigative report, Kick-Off to a Rip-Off: Loose Laws Lead to Inflated Prices for Rent-to-Own Consumers. 

• Led a presentation on predatory lending at a community meeting organized by Brooklyn Assemblyman Karim Camara in Crown Heights.

• Conducted workshops, in Spanish, at the Corona branch of the Queens Public Library, on immigrants' banking rights, how credit works, and credit reporting issues. 

• Trained seniors on identity theft and credit reports at Project FIND's Clinton Senior Center and Goddard Riverside Community Center.

NEDAP Staff & Board Updates

We are pleased to announce ...

• NEDAP has three new board members, Catherine Barnett, Gregory Lobo Jost, and Josh Zinner! Catherine Barnett is vice president of Project Enterprise, which supports microenterprise development in New York City.  Greg Jost is deputy director of University Neighborhood Housing Program, an affordable housing organization in the Northwest Bronx.  Josh Zinner recently joined the staff of Oxfam America, after serving for many years as director of the Foreclosure Prevention Project at South Brooklyn Legal Services.

• Deyanira Del Rio was selected as a fellow in the Coro Immigrant Civic Leadership Program, which "strengthens the ability of leaders in immigrant communities to mobilize immigrant participation in key decision-making processes."

• Rebeca Gamez-Djokic received a fellowship with CareerWays Public Service Fellowship Program, which "brings together emerging leaders from across the country, who are currently working or plan to work in a public service organization in New York City."

NEDAP Thanks its Donors!

NEDAP thanks the following individuals and organizations for their generous contributions this month:

• Pamela Sah
• Catherince Lifeso
• Hugh Hogan
• Shubert Botein Policy Associates

 

NEDAP welcomes your tax-deductible contribution, which may be made online or by mail.

 

NEDAP News is the monthly e-newsletter of the

Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project - www.nedap.org.