💸💪🏾Moneda Moves (28): US banks missing opportunity in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷💰
Buen dia, Moneda Moves readers! Writing your weekly notita with a change of scenery: Oceanside in Long Beach, California, where we are helping run the show at the fifth We All Grow Summit, which sets out to bring entrepreneurial Latinas together for a weekend. Who's out here? Shoot me a DM on Instagram and let's connect: @monedamoves.
Today, we revisit Puerto Rico's economic status. The island is still in need of aid and even though American banks have the perfect incentive to invest in the community, the response from many institutions has been underwhelming.
A federal law called the Community Reinvestment Act encourages financial institutions to lend money to people in low and moderate income communities for CRA credit in return. This is the kind of credit that would help banks when they are trying to open new branches or complete bank mergers. Three banks that have taken advantage of this offered credit? Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo and Citibank. Banks have 36 months after the official declaration of a disaster to make an investment. The story comes from Nicole Acevedo at NBC Latino.
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Onto the rest of this week's updates.
Con poder✊🏽,
Lyanne
Keep tabs/cuentas on what's happening at the intersection of Latinx and money.
Latinx face higher housing costs and tougher commutes🏠: That is according to a recent report from Salud America!, a UT Health San Antonio research organization focused on health disparities, which looked into the quality of living for many Latinx in this country versus other groups. Research from the study showed that homeownership among Latinos had been dropping throughout the last three years, which suggests that this group had become more reliant on rentals.
(Reporting from NBC Latino)
Per NBC Latino's reporting, Latino renters with children are three times more likely to be evicted from their homes as well. A big takeaway from this report is how connected all of these factors are. When tenants are displaced and unable to afford homes, they might move further away from metro areas. The distance from the city make a significant change on quality of life. Not only do folks have less and more costly options for commutes, but they also have more limited access to basic resources like quality schools and health care services. Read the full article from Nicole Acevedo at NBC Latino.
Know the powerful/potentes Latinx and up-and-comers in the money world.
Selena Quintanilla gets a mural in Chicago's Pilsen to support local business🎨: La Calle Selena is making its debut on the street of Chicago's Pilsen, a Mexican neighborhood in Chicago. The mural of the Tejana icon painted on the walls of a local carniceria (meat market) is part of a larger project organized by resident Mateo Zapata called "Support Your Local Corner Store" in the midst of gentrification in the neighborhood. The owners, which have been operating out of Pilsen since 1990 told ABC News that the mural has helped bring in more customers, adding: "Having Latino-owned businesses in Pilsen helps maintain the cultural identity of the community."
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Put your money/monedita where your mouth is! Some money updates for thought.
New Netflix documentary "After Maria" highlights displacement🇵🇷: If the earlier report from NBC Latino is any indicator, when we talk about money, it is equally important to cover living essentials, like housing. A new documentary follows Puerto Rico residents and their displacement following Hurricane Maria, including living in NYC for some and out of hotel rooms for others on limited FEMA assistance. The write-up on the documentary, out now, comes from Johanna Ferreira at HipLatina.
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