UNC Center for Community Capital Executive Director Janneke Ratcliffe will speak today on racial inequity in lending during a roundtable discussion hosted by the UNC School of Law Center for Civil Rights.
“The Color of Money: Racial (In)equity in Lending” will bring together experts in civil rights, economic development, consumer advocates and university researchers to examine lending discrimination and predatory practices that have cost African Americans and other people of colors tens of millions of dollars in overpayment fees and contributed to foreclosures and student debt.
Ratcliffe will participate in a panel discussion, “Getting to Goldilocks: African American Families and Successful Home Lending Practices.” She will share findings from the center’s decade of research on nearly 50,000 low-income homeowners who obtained high-quality affordable home loans. Ninety-five percent continued to repay during the foreclosure crisis.
Ratcliffe brings a strong background in the financial industry and community development as well as first-hand experience facilitating access to equitable financial services for low-income and minority entrepreneurs, first-time homebuyers and under-capitalized communities. Prior to joining the center, she served as executive director of a small business lending nonprofit. She spent 10 years in GE Capital’s mortgage and mortgage insurance subsidiary in positions related to risk management, product development and strategic planning. She worked for seven years at one of the country’s leading community development financial institutions helping to launch a multi-billion dollar secondary market for affordable home loans and developing a new funding source for commercial and real estate lending through the innovative New Markets Tax Credit Program.
The UNC Center for Community Capital is the leading center for research and policy analysis on the transformative power of capital on households and communities in the United States. The center’s in-depth analyses help policymakers, advocates and the private sector find sustainable ways to expand economic opportunity to more people, more effectively. For more information, visit www.ccc.unc.edu.
Topics(s): Affordable Homeownership, Housing Policy, Impacts of Homeownership, Mortgage Finance