In 2017, NALCAB launched a pilot project to build the credit and financial capability of tenants in affordable rental housing communities that are owned/operated by Latino-serving non-profit institutions. The pilot design built on previous work on rent reporting by the Credit Builders Alliance (CBA). CBA convincingly made the case that, “unlike homeowners, renters do not ‘get credit’ on their credit report for making their monthly housing payments. 45% of individuals in low-income neighborhoods are ‘credit invisible’ or ‘unscorable.’ Many have few opportunities to build credit history which directly impacts their ability to get and stay ahead in today’s economy.”
NALCAB provided grants, technical assistance, and training to owner/operators of multifamily rental housing in order to build their capacity to provide culturally-relevant financial capability services and to implement rent reporting to credit bureaus. The four pilot organizations saw credit scores increase by an average of 31-45 points, and the maximum score increased by 215 points. These early results show rent reporting for credit building is a powerful tool for organizations to help people in low- and moderate-income communities to build credit as an asset on a large scale. NALCAB looks forward to expanding access to this tool to the NALCAB network and beyond.
If you are interested in learning more about NALCAB’s rent reporting work, please contact Program Director Holly Frindell at hfrindell@nalcab.org.