Frank Diekmann hit the nail on the head with his Oct. 23 editorial, especially when we see our economy going through some major adjustments. With outsourcing of business and jobs to other countries I believe we'll see an increase in the lower- and moderate-income households. In Detroit people are losing their jobs at a pace I've never seen before.
We made a decision two years ago to expand in an area that is growing rapidly with immigrants (Southwest Detroit) and recently opened a new office. According to the Southwest Detroit Business Association the 2000 census for this area had 21% of the households earning less than $10,000 in 1999, and 56.2% of households earning less than $30,000. It seemed an obvious thing to do since we profess to be people-helping-people and the area has little CU presence.
As we surveyed the credit union landscape we found many credit unions in our county that were converting to community charters and were looking elsewhere to find new members. I think the credit union movement is missing out on a great opportunity to fulfill its social mission in the underserved areas.
Terry L. Denmark, CEO
Dearborn Village Community CU
Dearborn, Mich.
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