‘Multi-Cultural Banking Center’ to Help Wean Poor Off Predatory Loans

BROCKTON, Mass. – In the midst of the state’s worst home foreclosure storm, HarborOne CU launched a project yesterday to help turn the area’s low-income homeowners and immigrants off predatory loans. One of the main functions of the credit union’s new Multi-Cultural Banking Center is to provide financial education and assistance to the core populations who are being kicked out of their homes in Brockton, where 1,756 foreclosures last year is the highest on record for this working class city of 100,000, while state foreclosures soar to new highs, according to Jim Blake, president of HarborOne, an a member of the state task force on foreclosures. HarborOne’s Banking Center, believed the first of its kind, will give multilingual courses on foreclosure counseling, homebuying and personal finance. Despite the flood of foreclosures around Brockton and the state, HarborOne has had none–in fact just three foreclosures in the last 10 years, according to Blake. That’s because the credit union doesn’t offer the kind of non-traditional adjustable-rate mortgages and other subprime loans that are making up most of the foreclosed mortgages, he asserted. Courses at the Banking Center, where instructors will be fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole, will try to explain these products and help wean borrowers from them. The courses will be held in the $1.4 billion credit union’s vacant old headquarters, which are currently be renovated into classrooms. Participants in a multi-week course will automatically be allowed to open a checking account or line of credit with the credit union, said Blake, who hopes to be able to create other financial products or services aimed at this underserved market. HarborOne, which has partnered with the National CU Foundation’s Real Solutions on the project, is looking for other partners, either among local social service agencies or credit union entities, or for possible grant sources for financing.