NEDAP News | Vol. 1 Issue 12 | December 2006

Welcome to the December edition of NEDAP News

• NEDAP Celebrates 10th Anniversary!
• NEDAP In the News
• Community Training Roundup
• NEDAP Staff & Board Updates
• NEDAP Thanks its Donors!

Happy New Year from all of us at NEDAP!

NEDAP Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

Two hundred NEDAP friends and colleagues were on hand on December 7 to celebrate NEDAP's 10 years of community economic justice work.  NEDAP honored key allies and supporters at the event, which took place at Housing Works Used Book Café, in SoHo.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the event!  CLICK HERE to view more photos.

NEDAP In the News

NEDAP Issues "Holiday" and "Pay Stub" Loan Warning

This month NEDAP was featured in a series of local and national media reports on high-cost, abusive “holiday” and “pay stub” loans that tax preparers and their partner banks have introduced in low-income neighborhoods.  NEDAP also issued a press release and consumer alert on pay stub/holiday loans. 

Recent coverage on pay stub/holiday loans that featured NEDAP includes:

Poster advertising pay stub loans, in NYC subway station (12/06).

• City Limits: "Debt Comes Gift-Wrapped in New Quick-Loan Product."

• Newsday: "Consumers' aides say new 'pay-stub' loans, based on projected tax returns, are costly and risky."

• NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams:  "Holiday Loans = High-Interest Headaches."

• National Public Radio: 
  "Consumer Advocates Warn Against Paystub Loans."

• American Banker: '''Paystub' Loans Back -- In Time For Holidays."

• The New York Post: "Watch Your Wallet, Firms Expand Loan Program."

NEDAP also served as a media source on other vital issues:

• NEDAP co-director Sarah Ludwig is quoted in two Daily News articles on rising foreclosure rates in the Bronx.  She describes abusive mortgage lending practices that have helped cause the increase.  NEDAP's research is also cited. 

 

• NEDAP's Associate Director Deyanira Del Río is quoted in ”Helping the Undocumented Achieve the American Dream," an article on immigrants and homeownership, in the winter 2006 issue of The Next American City.

 

• NEDAP is also cited in "Credit Union Eyed for Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst," in the Queens Chronicle, describing the efforts of Forest Hills Community House to establish a community development credit union.

 

Community Training Roundup

Highlights of NEDAP's community workshops over the last month include:

• NEDAP organized a town hall meeting for homeowners and prospective homebuyers in Far Rockaway on December 14.  Organized by NEDAP in conjunction with host Margert Community Corporation and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the meeting helped local residents recognize and guard against predatory lending practices.

• On December 11, NEDAP co-presented an all-day workshop for community groups and advocates, "Sending Money Home: Transnational Organizing on Remittances."   The training, sponsored with the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA), focused on money transfers (remittances) and financial justice organizing in immigrant communities. 

NEDAP Staff & Board Updates

We are pleased to announce that...

• Deyanira Del Río has been named Associate Director of NEDAP. 

• Chris Keeley has returned to NEDAP to staff several of our ongoing advocacy campaigns.

• Manuel Orozco, director of the Remittances and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, has joined NEDAP's Advisory Board.

Thanks to our outgoing Board Members:

• NEDAP thanks outgoing Board Chair Pamela Sah.  Pamela joined NEDAP's board in 2001, and was part of the NEDAP team that received the Ford Foundation's 2004 Leadership for a Changing World Award.  We thank Pamela for her years of boardly service, and wish her all the best! 

• Best wishes also go to departing Board Member Bob Osborne, who recently left our fair city for the Midwest.  Thanks to Bob for setting the stage for our already successful direct donor campaign! 

NEDAP Thanks its Donors!

NEDAP would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their generous contributions over the past month:

Leticia Alanis Katy Bordonaro Hilary Botein Charu Chandrasekhar Monica Copeland William & Oda Friedheim Gail Gordon Sara Kay Steve Kolman Lorraine Leong Edmund V. Ludwig Robert Martin Daniel Rayner and Alicia Glen Angel L. Roman Elizabeth Serkin

Jonathan D. Springer April G. Tyler Lily Vakili Jeff & Lucy Wilner Chi Chi Wu Sarah Sheon Gerecke A donor who wishes to remain anonymous   American Corporate Benefits, Inc. Fifth Avenue Committee Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union The Parodneck Foundation  Pratt Center for Community Development

 

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.