Payday Predators from the Catholic Bishops of Kansas and the Kansas Catholic Conference

Payday Predators

Oct 31 2016 - 12:19pm | Edward J. Weisenburger

Protecting our most vulnerable from debt is an act of mercy.

In imitation of our Master, we Christians are asked to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own, and to take practical steps to alleviate it.” —Pope Francis

Pope Francis designated 2016 as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, urging the church to move the alleviation of poverty to the heart of our efforts with renewed zeal. In response, the bishops of Kansas, along with the staff of the Kansas Catholic Conference, undertook a careful survey of the more pressing social issues of our state. We concluded that among the structural evils affecting the poor, predatory lending—also known as payday lending—stands out as especially cruel. Like a cancerous tumor, it has grown swiftly, and it is dehumanizing to its victims—all while creating barely a ripple of public interest or concern.

To understand how we got to this point, first recall that from the beginnings of civilization, there have been teachings and laws against usury. Abusing the poor by lending money to those in crisis at astonishingly high interest rates is a practice that has been restricted or condemned by every civilization. Such behavior was rightly recognized as destructive and corrosive for communities and society. Moreover, from biblical times, one of the hallmarks of a jubilee year has been the cancellation of debts that were beyond the ability of the poor to pay. Liberation from the psychological and material “prison” of indebtedness is the perfect metaphor for God’s mercy.

Even given our nation’s secular history, legislation preventing usury was a natural part of our legal system until very recently. It was only in the 1990s that subtle changes in the law quietly and quickly eroded legal protection from usury. The result is a billion-dollar industry now advertised as friendly, safe and legitimate; indeed, it is actually presented as an altruistic financial service. The fact is that nothing could be further from the truth. So what is the truth?

Here are the facts. Payday lenders take advantage of a state of desperation experienced by those in dire financial circumstances. It is this sense of crisis that causes those (often with little financial understanding and few other options) to initiate an unseen cycle of debt from which it quickly becomes virtually impossible to escape. In 1995, there were 37 payday loan entities in Kansas; by 2014, this number had grown to 347. Sadly, Kansas has one of the highest payday loan use rates in the country: 8 percent of the adult population. This means that 175,000 of our family, friends and neighbors are ensnared by payday debt.

Unlike more mainstream and regulated financial products (like loans from banks or savings and loan institutions), most payday loans provide scant consumer protection. The average loan is $300 and must be repaid within two weeks, when the borrower receives his or her next paycheck. The fees charged for the loan are equivalent to an annual percentage rate of over 300 percent. More than 80 percent of loans cannot be repaid within this time period. The result is typically a loan that ends up with doubled or tripled fees. The initial sum constitutes more than a third of the average borrower’s disposable income, leaving even less money to pay for basic human needs such as food, housing, transportation to the place of employment and utilities.

Who is most at risk? No one is more vulnerable to the catastrophic consequences of “ballooning” fees than those who live on fixed incomes or who have been designated by social services agencies as highly at risk and unable to secure additional income because of advanced age, disability or some other critical circumstance. In 2014 there were 1,006,388 payday loans made to Kansans, totaling almost $392 million. Based on national averages, tens of thousands of these loans were made to Kansans who earn less than $20,000 per year. Roughly 30,000 of the poorest borrowers depend upon Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, disability benefits or Social Security as a major or even the primary source of income. What this means is that a substantial number of our Kansas tax dollars are being funneled through the poor and into the pockets of the payday loan industry!

Moreover, 53 Advance America outlets in the state of Kansas alone are owned by Salinas Pliego, a Mexican billionaire. Not only are Kansas tax dollars being funneled through the poor and into the pockets of the payday loan industry, but a significant amount is going to a billionaire in a foreign country. More disturbing is that our poorest neighbors and co-workers, who legitimately depend upon every penny of public assistance to care for their children or sick family members, would have been required to pay an estimated $10 million in interest and fees on those loans made in 2014. Each borrower paid an average of $325. As the yearly limit for TANF is $1,300, nearly one-fourth of this crucial, fixed income would be required just to service a loan.

While our research focused on the state of Kansas, it is worth noting that 14 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed predatory (payday) lending. The New Economy Project of New York estimates that these laws have saved $3.5 billion annually that payday lenders would otherwise siphon in fees. It is also worth noting that the federal government has imposed an annual interest rate cap of 36 percent for military personnel and their families, after concluding that predatory lending was harming them to the point of undermining military readiness.

The same protection should be given to all U.S. citizens, but the predatory loan industry’s lobby is powerful, and legislation is often gutted of any real power to protect the vulnerable. In Kansas, for example, it is illegal for a borrower to take out multiple, simultaneous payday loans, but with no structure in place to track payday loans, this law is entirely ignored. This already catastrophic situation is compounded by the ease with which predatory lenders now offer their services over the internet. And there is little relief from the federal regulatory agencies tasked with supervising the industry. This May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published preliminary new regulations of the industry, but they have numerous deficiencies, particularly concerning the verification of a customer’s ability to repay loans while affording household necessities.

The Catholic dioceses in Kansas are taking steps to alleviate some of the damage caused by this structural evil. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Salina and the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas have initiated programs that provide financial mentoring for those who have become ensnared in predatory lending. These programs help victims to transfer predatory loans to legitimate banks and savings and loan institutions; the new loans, with drastically lower interest rates, are backed by Catholic Charities. Those previously trapped in predatory loans now have a realistic possibility of becoming debt-free. But we have hit two roadblocks. The first is that we obviously do not have the assets to back an unlimited number of these crippling loans. While making a difference, we can never alleviate so massive a structural evil on our own. The second roadblock, which was not anticipated, is the challenge of actually paying off the balance of a payday loan. The director of Catholic Charities in Kansas City in Kansas has spent hours struggling to pay off loans in person, only to encounter resistance from the payday lenders. When staff members attempted to handle these matters over the phone, they were repeatedly misdirected, placed on hold or given what was determined later to be inaccurate loan balance amounts. The industry seems to make every effort to prevent the loans from being paid in full. It’s how they make their money.

If you’re asking yourself, “What can I do?” my response is to look again to the words of Pope Francis, who asks us to confront and to touch poverty. To confront this situation begins with resisting the temptation to turn our eyes away from the suffering of our neighbors, or shrugging it off as the result of financial irresponsibility that has “nothing to do with me.” The predatory lending industry very much wants us to look the other way—not to notice Lazarus at the gate.  But confronting poverty like this begins with shining a light upon it. Then there are many ways to touch this particular poverty and to take practical steps to alleviate it. One is for faithful Americans to call upon national and state legislators to initiate true reforms providing the same consumer protections afforded to those who use banks and savings and loan institutions. We must ask for a special focus on those who are already considered particularly vulnerable to the false security advertised by predatory lenders on virtually every street, but primarily advertised in our poorest neighborhoods.

In doing so you will be taking part in our Year of Mercy effort to fulfill Pope Francis’ request that we take practical steps to alleviate the unjust poverty that literally surrounds us. Surely this corporal and spiritual work of mercy is a perfect participation in this Holy Year of Mercy. What a fitting conclusion it would be if we could initiate the liberation of our poorest neighbors from this cruel shackle of crushing debt.

Most Rev. Edward J. Weisenburger is the bishop of Salina, Kan.

Payday lenders as modern-day loan sharks and the fight by people of faith to #StopTheDebtTrap

October 24, 2016 by Aaron Weaver 0 Comments

By Stephen K. Reeves

Stephen K. Reeves is the advocacy coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Throughout most of our history, payday and auto-title lenders  were called loan sharks and were operating on the wrong side of the law. Such exploitation of the vulnerable was understood as immoral and considered far outside legitimate business practices.

Only since the 1990s have these predatory lenders found ways to evade or amend state usury laws and offer loans at rates of 400% APR and above. During this period, the industry has ballooned to become a multi-billion-dollar a year business with more than 16,000 storefronts nationwide.
But for as long as these institutions have been in operation, in states across the country, people of faith and community activists have been raising the alarm, calling for reform and seeking a return to traditional usury laws.

Perhaps no other issue today epitomizes both the worst and best of our current political system.
According to countless observers, studies and reports, this industry is not built upon expensive, emergency small-dollar, short-term loans given to risky borrowers. Instead, the heart of the payday business model is creating intentional debt-traps which profit most when their customers fail.
A large percentage of borrowers end up in a cycle of debt by paying fees and interest that only buys more time to pay a lump sum, never reducing what they owe. Others pay off the loan only to realize the resulting hole in their budget leaves it impossible to make it to the next payday without another loan.

In fact, according to a nationwide study of 15 million transactions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 75% of all fees generated from these loans come from the 45% of borrowers who end up in 11 or more loans in a 12 month period.

Lenders and the elected officials that defend these practices represent the worst of our current political climate. They often point out that borrowers sign a contract so lenders are due whatever fees and interest rate has been agreed to. By not considering the undue leverage a lender has over a desperate borrower, such a position declares the free market as the ultimate arbiter of morality.
This unrestrained capitalism — unencumbered by moral considerations — inevitably leads to a number of unacceptable results; child labor being a prime example. Similar thinking on Wall Street led to the Great Recession of 2008.

The payday lending industry takes advantage of fellow citizens by setting up a system where borrower failure leads to lender success and profit. Neighbors at the end of their rope are nothing more that potential profit.

Add on top of that the corrupting influence of industry money and it is a perfect demonstration of the worst in our political system. Generous political contributions — to politicians from both parties — and millions of dollars spent on lobbyists at the state and national levels often effectively overwhelm the voice of those calling for reform and borrowers who are already politically marginalized.

In another sense, the fight to reform this industry represents the best of our political potential.
Champions for change, particularly at the state level, have shown incredible and rare bipartisan cooperation. This has been the case in Alabama, Kentucky and Arizona, among others. In Texas, ultra-conservative Tom Craddick, the Republican former Speaker of the House from Midland, teamed up with liberal heroine, former Senator Wendy Davis to push for reform.

Ten years ago, in our nation’s capital, the bipartisan Military Lending Act (MLA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The MLA limited the interest rate for payday and auto-title loans to 36% APR to active duty members of the military and their families.

Reform efforts at the state and federal levels have resulted in broad coalitions spanning typical ideological and theological lines. These have included not only consumer rights, legal aid and civil rights groups, but social service providers and a broad swath of the faith community.

In 2015, a new coalition called Faith for Just Lending was launched to support national reform, with a large and diverse list of members including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Association of Evangelicals, PICO and the National Baptist Convention, USA, among others.

Banding together to oppose exploitation of the financially vulnerable certainly represents the best of what active and faithful public witness can look like.
When reform efforts have failed in state legislatures, advocates have turned to creative political solutions. In some places, including Texas, this has meant passing local ordinances at the city level. This fight, and the central role people of faith played in it, is on display in the excellent new documentary titled “The Ordinance.”

At the federal level the fight for fair and responsible lending practices led to the passage of Dodd-Frank and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau (CFPB). This new, independent consumer watchdog — insulated from many of the corrupting elements of the campaign and lobby dollars — was given specific authority to reign in the abuses of payday and auto title lenders, and they’ve proposed a new rule to do just that.

The aim of the rule is to insure lenders are not setting borrowers up to fail and instead are making efforts to assess a borrower’s ability to repay without getting caught paying endless fees to extend the loan, or falling into an trap of repeated loans.

While the proposal goes a long way to improving the situation for borrowers in states with lax laws, for advocates working for decades for reform the rule is not strong enough.

During the recent public comment period that concluded October 7, it is estimated that the CFPB received more than one million comments. Thousands of comments from people of faith all over the country and across the political and theological spectrum were among those voices speaking out.

While the work and debate on predatory lending and the ultimate fate of the CFPB continues, a united front of passionate faith leaders engaging in advocacy on behalf of some of the most financially vulnerable neighbors exemplifies a positive development in the midst of troubled times. By broadening the list of “moral” concerns and taking on some of the worst elements of the system, people of faith represent some of the best. 

Stephen K. Reeves serves as the associate coordinator for partnerships and advocate for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Learn more about CBF’s advocacy efforts at www.cbf.net/advocacy.
CBF is a Christian Network that helps people put their faith to practice through ministry eff­orts, global missions and a broad community of support. Learn more at www.cbf.net.

Prepaid Credit Cards Rule from Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

October 5, 2016 CONTACT:Office of CommunicationsTel: (202) 435-7170 Prepared Remarks of Richard CordrayDirector of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Prepaid Accounts Rule Press Call Washington, D.C. Thank you for joining us on this call. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today has finalized a new rule providing strong federal consumer protections for prepaid account users. Prepaid accounts are among the fastest growing consumer financial products in the United States. One common form is the “general purpose reloadable” card, easily available at any number of stores or online. Consumers can load money onto these cards and use them for everyday purchases, just as they do with a bank account and a debit card. Prepaid accounts may also be loaded with funds by a third party, such as an employer. The amount consumers put on general purpose reloadable cards grew from less than $1 billion in 2003 to nearly $65 billion in 2012. And the total value loaded onto them is expected to nearly double to $112 billion by 2018. These accounts can be used to make payments, store funds, withdraw cash at ATMs, receive direct deposits, or send money to others. This market also includes a growing number of mobile or electronic prepaid accounts, such as PayPal or Google Wallet, which can also be used for a wide range of transactions. Before today, however, many of these products lacked strong consumer protections under federal law. Our new rule closes loopholes and protects prepaid consumers when they swipe their card, shop online, or scan their smartphone. Among the key new requirements that financial institutions must meet are these: (1) they must limit consumer losses when funds are stolen or cards are lost; (2) they must investigate and resolve errors that occur; and (3) they must give consumers free and easy access to their account information. The Bureau also has finalized new “Know Before You Owe” disclosures for prepaid accounts that give consumers the clear information they need, up front, about the fees they can be charged and other key details. In addition to these requirements governing prepaid accounts, financial institutions must offer protections similar to those for credit cards if they allow a prepaid account to be used to access certain credit extended by the institution, its affiliates, or its business partners. These protections would apply when a prepaid card can be used to cover a transaction even though the account lacks sufficient funds, with certain exceptions. The new rule applies to traditional prepaid cards, as well as mobile wallets, person-to-person payment products, and other electronic accounts that can store funds. The rule also covers: payroll cards; student financial aid disbursement cards; tax refund cards; and certain federal, state, and local government benefit cards, such as those used to distribute social security benefits and unemployment insurance. Many of these important protections stem from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and they are intended to be similar to those for checking account consumers. For instance, error resolution rights will now be similar for both types of accounts. If consumers are hit with what they believe are unauthorized or fraudulent charges, their financial institution must investigate and resolve these incidents in a timely way. Where it turns out to be appropriate, they must restore the missing funds. Consumers will also now generally have limited liability for any withdrawals, purchases, or other transactions made on a lost or stolen prepaid card. The new disclosures specified in the rule will give consumers easy-to-understand information about prepaid accounts right up front. Currently, some information is hard to find online or is not revealed until you open the packaging, which makes it hard to comparison shop. So the new rule sets an industry-wide standard on fee disclosures for prepaid accounts. This will simplify, organize, and present key information consistently so people can easily understand and act on it. This is much like the approach we have taken with “Know Before You Owe” disclosure forms for mortgages. A separate part of the rule provides strong credit-related protections that stem from the Truth in Lending Act. These protections are for consumers who want the option to access credit in the course of conducting transactions with their prepaid cards so that they can spend more money than they have in the prepaid account. In situations where prepaid users are accessing credit within a transaction that is offered by the issuer, its affiliate, or its business partner, they must receive protections similar to those afforded to credit card users under federal law. These protections include underwriting requirements, detailed periodic statements, limitations on late fees and charges, and restrictions on the amount of fees that can be imposed in the first year that the credit is extended. To further separate prepaid accounts and any credit feature that is offered, companies must observe a 30-day waiting period before offering such credit to newly registered prepaid consumers. The new prepaid rule will generally apply to prepaid accounts starting in October 2017. To make it easier to comparison shop among different products, prepaid account issuers must publicly post agreements for accounts they offer to the general public on their websites. They must also generally submit all their agreements to the Bureau, for posting on our website, starting in October 2018. These important new protections fill gaps in the law for consumers. The rapidly growing ranks of prepaid users deserve a safe place to store their money and a practical way to carry out their financial transactions. And though many prepaid companies already offer some of these same protections to their customers, it is vital for all consumers to have the settled assurance that these protections are now the law of the land. Thank you. ### The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that helps consumer finance markets work by making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. For more information, visit consumerfinance.gov.

ND Child Poverty Data Highlights Local Racial Disparities

September 20. 2016

New census data shows North Dakota saw the biggest drop in child poverty, but large disparities still exist, especially for Native populations. (iStockphoto)

BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota had the biggest drop in the country's child-poverty rate, but child well-being experts say there's more work to do, especially for Native families. The census data shows North Dakota saw a 20-percent drop in the state's child-poverty rate from 2011 to 2015.

Experts point to the state's low unemployment rate and recent oil boom as reasons behind the drop, but that number continues to be higher than before the recession in 2008. And Karen Olson, the program director with North Dakota Kids Count said the statewide numbers can mask the disproportionately high rates of unemployment and poverty among the local Native American population.

"Our youth within our tribal nations are five times more likely to be impoverished than children living elsewhere in North Dakota," she said. "So, there are some challenges, there are some struggles that we need to be focused on."

Olson suggested the state could help close the gap in those disparities by making more investments or expanding early-childhood home visiting programs, which she said can help prevent child abuse and neglect and increase educational opportunities.

Nationally, unemployment has continued to decline since the recession. But Laura Speer, the associate director of policy reform and advocacy with the Annie E. Casey Foundation expects that the child poverty rate would also improve faster, because both rates typically track close together.

"It's taken awhile for the child poverty rate to really make any headway, and in fact, we're still higher today at 21 percent than we were in 2008 when the child poverty rate was 18 percent," she said.

According to new research from North Dakota Kids Count, the state's child population is growing faster than any other state in the country. Olson said that's one more reason to expand on existing programs aimed at helping families.

"Programs like Head Start that address both the needs of the child and the parent by increasing school readiness among young children, with the assumption that a healthy home will continuously benefit children throughout their development," she added.

Brandon Campbell/Shaine Smith, Public News Service - ND

September 20, 2016, 10:15 am

Why Wells Fargo got away with it for so long

By Robert Weissman and Lisa Donner, contributors

 

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Wells Fargo's scandalous practice of secretly opening more than 2 million sham deposit and credit card accounts dragged on for at least five years.

How did Wells Fargo get away with it for so long?

A big part of the story: Wells Fargo contract provisions blocked consumers from suing the bank in court. It's past time to prohibit the "ripoff clauses" that prevent consumers from enforcing their most basic legal rights.

Like most big banks and many other corporations, Wells Fargo buries ripoff clauses in the fine print of its customer contracts. These provisions, also known as "forced arbitration" clauses, prevent consumers from suing over wrongdoing in court and prohibit consumers from banding together in class actions. Instead, ripoff clauses force consumers to seek redress in private arbitration, on an individual basis.

So when lots of consumers have suffered small harms — as was the case with Wells Fargo — there's nothing they can do. It's generally not worth the time and money to bring a case individually, and there's a disincentive to proceed in arbitration, where claims are decided by a private firm handpicked and paid by the corporation rather than a judge or jury. Effectively, banks and other corporations are free to rip off their consumers without fear of being held accountable in court.

The problem isn't just that aggrieved consumers don't have access to a remedy. Keeping cases out of court means abuses are kept out of the spotlight.

That's exactly what happened with Wells Fargo, and why the abuses could go on so long.

Indeed, more than three years ago, a Wells Fargo customer named David Douglas sued in California, contending that the bank's employees and branch managers "routinely use the account information, date of birth, and Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers ... and existing bank customers' money to open additional accounts." Douglas alleged that branch managers opened at least eight accounts in his name and created fake business accounts under his name without his knowledge.

This case should have gone to court but was blocked by a ripoff clause. Douglas's lawyers argued that an arbitration provision in a legitimate account agreement should not bar him from suing over a sham account he never agreed to open. However, citing recent 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the judge held that the ripoff clause in the original agreement blocked him from suing Wells Fargo.

In 2015, another Wells Fargo customer, Shahriar Jabbari, tried to file a class action against the bank, claiming that employees hid fees, refused to close accounts on request, and forged signatures and addresses. Wells Fargo publicly denied these allegations. Again, the judge ruled that the ripoff clause in the original account agreement forced any unresolved disagreement into arbitration, and Jabbari's class action was kicked out of court.

Had these early cases been allowed to proceed, others almost certainly would have followed, and Wells Fargo may have ended these pervasive abuses years ago.

Instead, it took until last week for the practices to be halted, and then only thanks to the efforts of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency devised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and adopted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. State and federal regulators had notice of the problem at least as far back as 2013, when the Los Angeles Times first reported on Wells Fargo's fraudulent accounts. Front-line Wells Fargo workers had drawn attention to the problem, too; in April 2015, at the bank's annual shareholder meeting, Wells Fargo employees with the Committee for Better Banks submitted an 11,000-signature petition calling for an end to sales quotas that fueled fraud.

Private enforcement – individual lawsuits and class actions brought by harmed consumers — not only is a necessary complement to agency efforts, but it also often alerts agencies to the need for action.

Governmental agencies don't have the resources to police every instance of fraud. And these agencies frequently face industry smears and congressional posturing that halts or slows their ability to act.

When consumers are blocked from suing, it takes longer for agencies to become aware of a problem and is much more difficult for them to gather evidence and build a case — particularly when companies use forced arbitration to keep victims silent.

The solution: Do away with ripoff clauses. The CFPB has proposed a rule that would end the worst ripoff clauses in the financial arena, restoring consumers' right to join together in class actions to hold banks accountable for predatory behavior.

The big banks are trying to block the rule, but the Wells Fargo scandal shows exactly why the CFPB should prevail.

Weissman is president of Public Citizen. Donner is executive director of Americans for Financial Reform.

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The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

ND Pipeline Fight Highlights Tribal Disparities, Discrimination

ND Pipeline Fight Highlights Tribal Disparities, Discrimination
September 19, 2016 - Brandon Campbell, Public News Service (ND)

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Chairman Archambault (left) and Chief Arvol Looking Horse are involved in the latest fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline that also spotlights decades of racial discrimination against Native populations in North Dakota. (Photo by Jenni Monet)

BISMARCK, N.D. - For many members of the Lakota Sioux Tribe, the battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline is just the latest symptom of a longstanding racial divide in North Dakota.

Native Americans in the state are jailed and live in poverty at much higher rates than their white neighbors, and some tribe members say North Dakota's strict voter ID laws keep them disconnected from state government.

Earlier this month, anger over these and other issues came to a head when Native protesters were met by security guards with dogs and pepper spray. Days later, Gov. Jack Dalrymple called out the National Guard.

Phyllis Young, a former tribal councilwoman for the Standing Rock Sioux, said she isn't surprised by the extreme response to the protests.

"We've run on empty for a number of generations and we're stepping up," she said. "We have reached a pinnacle and a peak."

Young and other tribal members were interviewed for a YES! Magazine article, which detailed how state policies and social barriers have led to persistent poverty among North Dakota tribes.

National attention on the Dakota Access Pipeline protest has earned support from Hollywood celebrities, activists and other tribes across the country. But Chase Iron Eyes with the Standing Rock Sioux said local policies are to blame for some of the local tribes' frustration, including a state voter ID law that requires a physical address.

"I never had a physical address until, I don't know, until I came back from law school," he said. "Our whole lives, we have P.O. boxes, and so this was something that, in the law, what we do have is a discriminatory impact."

The Obama administration recently put the Dakota Access project on hold in sacred tribal areas while the Sioux Tribe's lawsuit over the pipeline is in federal court. Even if the pipeline is defeated, Lakota spiritual Chief Arvol Looking Horse said he believes more must be done to address the disparities among Native populations.

"The fear of racism, it's alive and well in the Dakotas. Today, it's even gotten worse because of the political leaders," he said. "People of the world don't even know that we exist today. And finally, this is the whole world watching."

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This story was produced with reporting from Jenni Monet for Yes! Magazine. Monet is an award-winning journalist and member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. She's also executive producer and host of the podcast Still Here, launching this month.

Housing Needs Assessment Regional Forums Planned

BISMARCK, ND – In conjunction with the release of the 2016 Statewide Housing Needs Assessment, North Dakota Housing Finance Agency is hosting regional stakeholder forums across the state to allow community leaders and members of the public to learn more about projected housing needs in their area.

An analysis of the state’s current and future housing needs, the Assessment is available online at www.ndhfa.org. It was conducted by the Center for Social Research and the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University.

The regional forums will feature a presentation by Assessment author Dr. Nancy Hodur as well as a discussion of housing needs and priorities specific to each region. Community leaders, business people, housing stakeholders and the general public are invited to provide their input at these meetings.
Regional Stakeholder Forums, all times are local:

•  Tri-County Region I – Sept. 19 at 10 a.m., Williston Center for Development, Planning and Zoning Conference Room (2nd floor), 113 4th St East, Williston, ND.
• Roosevelt-Custer Region VIII – Sept. 19 at 3 p.m., Dickinson Public Library, Community Room, 139 West 3rd St, Dickinson, ND.
• Souris Basin Region II – Sept. 20 at 10 a.m., Minot Public Library, North Room, 516 2nd Ave SW, Minot, ND.
• North Central Region III – Sept. 20 at 3 p.m., Lake Region State College, Chautauqua Room, 1801 College Dr N, Devils Lake, ND.
• Red River Region IIII – Sept. 21 at 10 a.m., Grand Forks Herald, Community Room (Alley Entrance), 375 2nd Ave N, Grand Forks, ND.
• Lake Agassiz Region V – Sept. 21 at 3 p.m., Fargo Public Library Community Room, 102 N 3rd St, Fargo, ND.
• South Central Region VI – Sept. 22 at 10 a.m., Jamestown/Stutsman County Development Corp., 120 2nd St SE, Jamestown, ND.
• Lewis & Clark Region VII – Sept. 22 at 3 p.m., State Capitol, Pioneer Room, 600 E Boulevard Ave, Bismarck, ND.

Assessment components include a statewide population and housing forecast, regional profiles and detailed tables broken down by various levels of geography including the state as a whole, the eight planning regions, 53 counties, 12 major cities and four Native American Indian Reservations. An additional study component that examines several special topics such as recent trends in housing costs and special populations will be released in September.

NDHFA is a self-supporting state agency dedicated to making housing affordable for all North Dakotans. The North Dakota Industrial Commission, consisting of Governor Jack Dalrymple as chairman, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, oversees the agency.

NDSU’s Center for Social Research is an applied social science research unit dedicated to providing a venue through which a wide variety of research activities are facilitated. Hodur is the Center’s Director and has over 25 years of professional experience in applied research, public policy and outreach education.