Shelterforce spoke with community-lending leaders and experts about the current mood across the sector. What, if anything, are organizations planning to do to avoid becoming the next target?
A year has passed since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. While the ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. Harvard and UNC applied only to the use of race in determining college admissions, in its wake, conservative activists are mounting new challenges to a variety of programs that provide money or services to historically disadvantaged communities and people of color.
Targets include community development financial institutions (CDFIs), specialized lenders that serve low-income communities not traditionally reached by mainstream lenders, as well as local governments and nonprofit funders and investors.
Some examples: