“From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, and the Pursuit of Equitable Access to Credit” is the topic of the Sept. 7 and 8, 2012, conference presented by The John Marshall Law School Fair Housing Legal Support Center with George Washington University Department of Sociology and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council.
The program brings together leaders of organizations, law enforcement and activist scholars to examine and assess the importance of advocacy and organizing initiatives geared toward fair lending.
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is one way the public had voiced its anger over the financial services industry’s predatory practices that led to the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. Squatters living in foreclosed homes and other public actions throughout the United States allow residents to react to what happens in their neighborhoods when banks fail to maintain the properties they now hold title to.
“Clearly, a growing social movement is rising,” said Professor Michael Seng, co-director of the Fair Housing Legal Support Center. “The conference focuses on these actions, and questions the effectiveness of these protests.
“Can they advocate and organize to create a workable system so that everyone has equitable access to credit in the future? And what lessons can we learn from the past to create new models for future actions that will meet the needs of fair housing and fair lending?”
The Sept. 7 program opens with a 9 a.m. session on “Lessons on OWS for Fair Lending, Part 1” moderated by Seng, with guest speakers James Carr, chief business officer, and David Berenbaum, chief program officer, at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. That will be followed by “Lessons…Part 2,” moderated by John Marshall Professor F. Willis Caruso, with speakers Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending; Dory Rand, president of the Woodstock Institute; and Thomas FitzGibbon, managing director of Community and Organizational Development at Talmer Bank and Trust.
John Marshall Professor Allison Bethel moderates the 1:30 p.m. session, “From Fair Lending to Fair Housing,” featuring Shanna Smith, president, and Lisa Rice, vice president, National Fair Housing Alliance; Janis Bowdler, director of the National Council of LaRaza; and John P. Relman, managing partner of Relman, Dane & Colfax PLLC.
The 3:15 p.m. session, “Role of Government in an OWS World,” will be moderated by Patricia A. McCoy, Connecticut Mutual Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, with panelists Steven H. Rosenbaum, chief of Housing and Civil Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice; John Trasviňa, assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Maureen C. Yap, senior attorney, Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
The Sept. 8 program opens at 9 a.m. with “Organizing and the Next Wave of Fair Lending Advocacy, Part I” moderated by John Marshall Clinical Professor Damian Ortiz with guest speakers George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action; Max Rameau of Take Back the Land; and Mike Miller, executive director of Organize Training Center.
The 10:45 a.m. session, “Organizing and the Next Wave of Fair Lending Advocacy Part II” with moderator Bethel, features Stephen Lerner, executive board member of the Service Employees International Union, and Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform.
“Old Left, New Left and the Future of Fair Lending Advocacy” at 11:45 a.m. will be the final session. Moderated by Seng, the session will include discussion by Peter Dreier of Occidental College; Robert G. Schwemm, Ashland-Spears Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law; and John Powell, University of California at Berkeley.
This conference will be at The John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Ct., Chicago. Participants can earn 10 CLE credits. The registration fee is $450. Registrations are being accepted at events.jmls.edu/FairLending. Additional information on the program is at www.jmls.edu/fairhousingcenter.