With over three decades
of experience in community
advocacy, Williams is active in
local, regional, and national
community reinvestment
groups. He is vice chair of
the board of directors of the
National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a
member of the National Fair
Housing/Fair Lending
Curriculum Council, and a
coordinator of the Ohio
Community Reinvestment
Alliance. He is also a member
of Cincinnati’s Affirmative
Action Advisory Committee.
E
Williams explains that his system of accountability has five tiers: “You must be accountable to God, yourself, family, humankind, and whomever/whatever you say you represent —whether that is the community, government, or a corporate entity.”
According to Williams, his five-tier system comprises the same set of principles that has guided the staff of the Coalition of Neighborhoods, a community-based organization that fosters partnerships which promote and expand healthy, integrated neighborhoods. “In fact, the Coalition is an effective partnership within itself, which is why I have remained a part of it since its incorporation in 1972,” says Williams.
He notes that many partnerships have full-blown visions of community redevelopment, or goals of promoting full employment, or equal and fair com- petition for asset and wealth accumulation. “However, regardless of their vision or goals, effective partnerships require that all partners know what they need and what resources they bring to the partnership. The partners also need assurance that the other partners will do all they can to ensure accountability.”
In his post at the Coalition, Williams provides community groups with assessments of credit needs as well as analyses of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. “Over the years, the Coalition has developed partnerships with many other nonprofits, government agencies, and entrepreneurs,” explains Williams. “These partnerships have expanded to include the housing, lending, and regulatory industries. In these areas, ongoing discussions and programs have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in neighborhoods and small cities that had historically been denied access to capital resources. However, there are still unmet capital needs that require renewed commitment to partnership efforts.”
In 1992, Williams’s concern over unfulfilled capital needs led to his affiliation with the then-fledgling National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). As Williams tells it, “John Taylor (current NCRC president and CEO) gave me the challenge of helping to build the NCRC into a coalition of national, regional, state, and local organizations that would utilize its pooled resources to increase fair and equal access to capital, credit, and banking services.”
Today, says Williams, NCRC is the largest community economic development trade association in the country. He was recently reelected to his third term as NCRC vice chair. He also serves as co-chair of NCRC’s Legislative/Regulatory Committee.
Throughout his career, Williams has been known for his tireless, often outspoken advocacy of shared decisionmaking among governmental entities and community residents. Williams’s efforts have, in part, helped implement the following:
After 30 years of grassroots activism, Williams, 47, is not planning to lighten his schedule. “There is a lot of work to be done,” he says. “We need to pursue ongoing partnerships between lenders, government entities, and communities. Failure to make and implement these partnership commitments will leave too many Americans and communities in their current and future state of disinvestment and deterioration. For those of you who suggest this is a concept of perfection or idealism, you are right, but this is the great challenge of America.”