Georgians for Resource Equity

Properly Resourcing Communities throughout Georgia

Home

Georgians For Resource Equity

Properly Resourcing Communities throughout Georgia 

Learn More

Our Mission

GfRE exists to Properly Resource Communities throughout Georgia.

Targeting Deserts

We do this by targeting deserts, notably healthcare deserts, food deserts, credit deserts, consumer deserts, and other areas of lack.

Resources

GfRE targets essential resources to communities where they are not currently being provided by national firms.

Supporting Entrepreneurs

GfRE works with and helps local entrepreneurs within those communities provide the resources themselves by combining important financial investments/assistance with coaching and mentoring. 

Our Background

An individual’s condition is inseparable from the condition of their community. They have an opportunity to thrive when the community that they inhabit can provide them with the resources they need. Such essential resources are not distributed equitably throughout Georgia. The lack of any of these critical resources is defined by the United Nations as poverty. Another term used widely today is desert.

Credit Desert: The Facts

  1. Banks, Despite the Federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), have been closing branches in lower income and minority areas for years. In 2020 they closed a record 3,324 branches.
  2. Payday Lenders, Title Loan, and Pawn Shops Have Come Into These Communities to Fill the Financial Services Void.  It is critical that people in every community have access to high quality sources of credit.
  3. High quality credit is credit that is structured to support repayment, with affordable monthly installments of principal and interest fitting within the borrower’s budget, and where the lender reports all credit to the credit bureaus, helping people build or rebuild credit.
  4. Residents with lower credit scores generally pay more for auto, renter’s, and homeowner’s insurance
  5. Even if residents are offered a loan, chances are it will be at a higher interest rate
  6. Employers may run a credit check before offering residents a job, especially if they apply for a management position or one that involves handling money.
View Credit Deserts

Atlanta-Area Average Credit Scores

  1. Poor credit can make it harder to get car and home loans, and to qualify for credit card accounts
  2. ​Even if residents are offered a loan, chances are it will be at a higher interest rate
  3. ​Residents with lower credit scores generally pay more for auto, renter’s, and homeowner’s insurance
  4. ​Employers may run a credit check before offering residents a job, especially if they apply for a management position or one that involves handling money.
 Click to Download the Atlanta Metro Credit Scores

Health Service Deserts: The Facts

  1. Banks, Despite the Federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), have been closing branches in lower income and minority areas for years. In 2020 they closed a record 3,324 branches.
  2. Payday Lenders, Title Loan, and Pawn Shops Have Come Into These Communities to Fill the Financial Services Void.  It is critical that people in every community have access to high quality sources of credit.
  3. High quality credit is credit that is structured to support repayment, with affordable monthly installments of principal and interest fitting within the borrower’s budget, and where the lender reports all credit to the credit bureaus, helping people build or rebuild credit.
  4. Residents with lower credit scores generally pay more for auto, renter’s, and homeowner’s insurance
  5. Even if residents are offered a loan, chances are it will be at a higher interest rate
  6. Employers may run a credit check before offering residents a job, especially if they apply for a management position or one that involves handling money.
View Pharmacy Deserts

Grocery Store: The Facts

  1. In 2015, an estimated 39 million people, or 12.8% of the United States Population, lived in “Low Income and Low Access Areas.” 
  2. Food deserts tend to be inhabited by low-income residents with reduced mobility, making these areas less attractive markets for large supermarket chains to locate.
  3. Food deserts lack suppliers of fresh foods, such as meats, fruits, and vegetables and, available foods are often processed and high in sugar and saturated fats.
View Grocery Deserts

Support Resolutions

The following resolutions are in support of our mission.

Download Document
Download Document
Download Document
Download Document
GfRE’s Partnerships

Consultative Group to Assist the Poor

“Interest rate ceilings hurt poor people by making it harder for them to get credit. Making many small loans costs more than making a few large ones. Interest rate ceilings prevent microfinance institutions from covering their costs, and thereby choke off the supply of credit for poor people.”

Consumers’ Research

“…the proposed rate cap would likely eliminate the installment lending market, as well. Installment loans, which have average annual interest rates of 40 to 90 percent, represent the closest alternative to payday loans. They are used by an estimated 10 million consumers each year.”

Financial Health Network

“Much of the debate about small-dollar credit has heretofore focused on price, as expressed in Annual Percentage Rates (APR), as a primary determinant of quality. While affordable prices are certainly one aspect of high-quality small-dollar loans, what is “affordable” to any given borrower depends on many factors, including the loan’s size, repayment period, interest rate and fees, as well as the individual borrower’s unique financial situation….”

Pew Charitable Trusts

“In general, smaller loans have higher APRs…. One reason for this….is that APRs are annualized, so they tend to be higher for loans with shorter terms. Another reason is that lenders’ operating costs, which are charged to borrowers, are largely constant across all loans, so they are higher on a per-dollar- loaned basis for small loans than for large ones.”