This lingering recession is a time of change, both for families facing economic pressures and for organizations that support sustainable communities. I believe that to capture this moment and harness it for progress we must address the gaps in access to affordable financial products and services. These gaps contributed to the foreclosure crisis; when banks are absent from a community, non-banks or even predatory lenders may fill the vacuum.  Lack of access is only part of the problem, however – we also need innovative products and services tailored to the needs of currently unbanked or underbanked consumers.

A recently released study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York called attention to an analysis that indicates that, despite a strong state-ranking of New York, nearly two dozen towns on Long Island rank among the nation’s most distressed zip codes. Its report in Facts & Trends, titled “Long Island Mortgage Distress: Analysis at the Neighborhood Level” and released in early May, presented an analysis that Suffolk and Nassau counties have an estimated 50 percent of its combined nonprime loans in jeopardy – loans either already in default or foreclosure, bank-owned or with underwater mortgages.