A packed room of activists, bankers and policymakers were challenged to “dream big” last night as we took a deep dive into an long-underutilized tool to close racial wealth gaps. Attendees heard from some of the nation’s foremost experts on Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCP) including Patience Malaba from the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County; Shanti Abedin from the National Fair Housing Alliance; and Zachary Best from Relman Colfax PLLC.

Partnership for Financial Equity co-sponsored this Partners with a Purpose event with the Racial Wealth Gap Partnership at The Boston Foundation. In addition to our guests from Seattle and Washington DC, the event featured local experts Steve Antonakes and Abby Nguyen-Burke from Eastern Bank; Ken Willis from Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston; Alison Tower from Hometown Financial Group; and Brook Ames from Leader Bank and chair of the PFE Board of Directors.

Patience Malaba from HDC Seattle-King County has been instrumental in helping to launch the groundbreaking Covenant Homeownership program in the state of Washington, a statewide Special Purpose Credit Program involving community-based organizations, banks and state government. She advised the attendees to “dream big” and “don’t be afraid” of what is perceived to be a daunting burden of political and regulatory gauntlets. Steve Antonakes from Eastern Bank harkened back to his days as MA Banking Commissioner during the 2008 Great Recession and said, “You can do things during a crisis that you can’t do during normal times. And our racial wealth gap in this country is a crisis.”

Next up is our 2024 Financial Equity Summit on October 1-2 where these important conversations will continue. Register for the Summit today.