NEDAP News | Vol. 2 Issue 7 | July 2007

Welcome to the July 2007 edition of NEDAP News

• NEDAP Testifies on Capitol Hill
• Join us on August 8 for a Screening of In Debt We Trust
• Community Training and Advocacy Highlights
• Staff Update

NEDAP Testifies on Capitol Hill

On July 11, NEDAP's executive director Sarah Ludwig testified on abusive overdraft loans, before the U.S. House of Representatives' Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee.  At the hearing, entitled "Overdraft Protection: Fair Practices for Consumers," Sarah shared NEDAP's experience working with people harmed by bounce protection loans, and made policy recommendations on how to end abusive overdraft loans.  Click here for written testimony.

Join us on August 8 for a Screening of In Debt We Trust

NEDAP concludes its 2007 Community Economic Justice Film Series on August 8 with a screening of In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts.  The film documents how American consumers are laboring under record-setting levels of debt and examines the effect this is having on the nation's economic health.  The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the film's director and New York consumer and fair lending advocates.  Screening location:  Downtown Community Television, 87 Lafayette St. 

On July 11, NEDAP screened The House We Live In - a documentary that traces the roots of housing discrimination and bank redlining in the U.S.  NEDAP's screening was featured in a Daily News column on the persistence of residential segregation in New York City.

Click here for Film Series schedule and other details.  RSVP to info@nedap.org or (212) 680-5100.

Community Training and Advocacy Highlights

In July NEDAP:

• Testified at a hearing sponsored by the NYS Senate Democrats, on subprime mortgage lending and foreclosures, held at Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. in Brooklyn.

• Made presentations on predatory lending and the homebuying process, for Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union (in English and Spanish), Erasmus Neighborhood Federation, and Chhaya CDC.

• Conducted a training at the Center for Independence of the Disabled of New York on banking basics, credit issues and predatory lending scams.

• Appeared in various media outlets, including:
  • Shelterforce, in cover story, "Losing Ground," authored by NEDAP's executive director
  • New York Daily News: "As the bottom falls out of mortgage business, minority communities suffer most" and "Victims of predatory lenders tell their home horror stories"
  • The Canarsie Digest,"The American Dream Fizzles: Canarsie Suffers from Subprime Mortgages and Foreclosures"
• Our Time Press, "Brooklyn Patterns: Time to Connect the Dots... If Not, They'll Connect Themselves"
• ITV Gold, on a live call-in show about predatory lending, with Chhaya CDC
• BCAT's Reporter Roundtable, in which NEDAP's co-director discussed the Mayor's Conditional Cash Transfer program

Staff Update

This month, NEDAP said farewell to long-time staffer Chris Keeley, who recently accepted a position with Pennsylvania State Representative Chris King.  Many of you had the pleasure of working with Chris over the past five years, and we know you join with NEDAP's staff and board in wishing him all the best! 

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.