Ms. Harris is also calling for stronger laws against housing discrimination; for more funding for financial literacy education; and for major changes in the calculation of credit scores, which lenders use to determine interest rates and eligibility for loans.
Currently, credit scores are based on payment history for things like credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, which many people of color don’t have. Ms. Harris’s plan would require credit reporting agencies to include rent, phone bill and utility payments in their calculations as well.
Her campaign projected that eliminating the homeownership gap would increase the median wealth of black households by about $32,000, and that of Latino households by about $29,000. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has announced a similar plan.
“Join me as we right what is wrong and write the next chapter of history in our country,” Ms. Harris said. “The fight of black women has always been fueled and grounded in faith and in the belief of what is possible.”
Ms. Harris’s speech — and a question-and-answer session afterward with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Michelle Ebanks, the chief executive of Essence Communications — also touched on health care, student loans and abortion.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/us/politics/harris-essence-festival-2020-democrats.html
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