There's an eviction crisis in America right now and credit unions have $56 billion of excess, member-owned capital sitting on their books. Credit unions must start emergency lending to #KeepPeopleInTheirHomes immediately!
This is an unprecedented moment of crisis in American history. 30 to 40 million Americans are vulnerable to eviction in the coming months -- in the middle of a pandemic. We now know that the federal so-called "eviction ban" is only a mirage and is not actually stopping evictions. The magnitude of human suffering and spread of disease this will cause is incalculable - and unconscionable.
Our people need help that is not coming. We've got to do it ourselves.
America’s 5,000 credit unions are the cooperatively-owned “movement banks” that started in the last Great Depression, in the midst of another unprecedented market and governmental failure. When investor-owned banks would not lend to working people in crisis, the social movement organizers of an earlier generation came together to start their own banks.
Ninety years later, the “social impact start-ups” of their day are all grown up. Credit unions today count 110 million Americans as member-owners, have $1.7 trillion in assets, and do $80 billion in revenue each year. Though massive, they are still democratically-owned, with an elected board of directors, and they are still governed by the international cooperative principles, including concern for community, and the cooperative values of democracy, equity, and mutual self-help.
Since the last economic crisis in 2008, credit unions have accumulated a rainy day fund of member-owned capital that, in July 2020, had reached $56 billion.
If every credit union used just 20% of this excess member-owned capital as a loan-loss reserve fund, we could create $10 billion of emergency loans overnight.
This is no time for business as usual! While our co-ops' and credit unions' balance sheets may be healthy, our member-owners' and our communities' balance sheets are anything but. Credit union leaders must feel their emergency and make it their own.
This is the money that America needs right now to keep people in their homes. It is already present in our communities -- and we own it! Our credit unions did not cause this crisis, but they have the power to prevent millions of people from being evicted, and with that power comes the responsibility to act. This is the moment for credit unions to demonstrate the difference that cooperative ownership makes: while banks are foreclosing, credit unions can be sheltering America, her people, and their communities from this storm.
We call on our credit union elected directors, CEOs, and staff to to act with all due swiftness to use our surplus $56 billion in member-owned capital to create flexible emergency loans and whatever else is necessary to #KeepPeopleInTheirHomes.
To:
America's Credit Unions
From:
[Your Name]
There's an eviction crisis in America right now and credit unions have $56 billion of excess, member-owned capital sitting on their books. We are calling on you to create emergency loans to #KeepPeopleInTheirHomes immediately!
This is an unprecedented moment of crisis in American history. 30 to 40 million Americans are vulnerable to eviction in the coming months -- in the middle of a pandemic. We now know that the federal so-called "eviction ban" is only a mirage and is not actually stopping evictions. The magnitude of human suffering and spread of disease this will cause is incalculable - and unconscionable.
If every credit union used just 20% of its excess member-owned capital as a loan-loss reserve fund, we could create nearly $10 billion of emergency loans.
Our credit unions did not cause this crisis, but they have the power to prevent millions of people from being evicted, and with that power comes the responsibility to act. This is the moment for credit unions to demonstrate the difference that cooperative ownership makes: while banks are foreclosing, credit unions can be sheltering America, her people, and their communities from this storm.
We call on you, our credit union elected directors, CEOs, and staff to to act with all due swiftness to use our surplus $56 billion in member-owned capital to create flexible emergency loans and whatever else is necessary to #KeepPeopleInTheirHomes.
