By Magaly Muñoz

Rising numbers of unbanked or underbanked individuals, largely due to unmet minimum balance requirements, have become a growing concern. However, organizations across Oakland are stepping up, waging a war against the financial illiteracy that’s plaguing some residents.

Up to 4% of Alameda County’s residents lack access to basic banking services, with Black and Hispanic communities making up the majority of that unbanked or underbanked population. The term ‘unbanked’ describes people without a checking or savings account, while ‘underbanked’ describes people who have checking or savings accounts but often rely on alternative financial solutions like money orders and payday loans rather than conventional loans and credit cards.

Recently, the downtown Oakland Wells Fargo branch redesigned their bank to include a Hope Inside center in partnership with Operation HOPE, an organization centered around expanding economic opportunities for underserved communities.

The center features free access to financial coaches who work with individuals to gain financial assistance and guidance, such as helping improve credit scores.

Dr. Joaquin Wallace is one of the financial coaches at the Oakland branch who meets one-on-one with clients to provide credit money management solutions and develop strategic plans to assist them with reaching their financial goals.

He’s created a seven-step blueprint for attaining generational wealth. This includes acknowledging that your background and culture have significant influence on how you view finances, focusing on reprogramming financial trauma and gaining financial edification through literacy programs.

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He shared that it can be difficult for some to accept their financial struggles because their environment might not allow for these immediate understandings because for many, money is not openly discussed in their communities.

“Money is a topic that is not communicated about — it’s taboo. And so first, you have to at least feel comfortable enough to have this conversation,” Wallace said.

Despite the initial roadblocks, the branch is seeing success with the program. Fifty-seven percent of the clients at the Hope Inside center have increased their credit score by an average of 19 points; 47% of the clients increased their savings by a median of $141; and 50% of clients have successfully reduced their debt by a median of $364.

Sonya Verdine, an Oakland resident of four years, is one of the success stories that Oakland Wells Fargo has helped since their soft launch in 2022.

Verdine’s life has been a rollercoaster of challenges including homelessness, mental health struggles and health scares that ultimately pushed her to improve her life, starting with attempting to correct the financial choices she’d made up to that point.

She was introduced to Wallace’s seven-step generational wealth method which provided her with a roadmap to get her on the right track to financial stability. Since visiting the Hope Inside center, Verdine has seen her credit score go up 200 points and she’s saving almost 10% of her income every month with a goal to someday buy her own home.

“You can take this program, you can start from literally nothing, and the program can help you build because they offer a variety of other services,” Verdine said. “It will be time well spent to participate in this program.”

Another organization that has long taken the reins to combat financial illiteracy and break the cycle of poverty is United Way Bay Area (UWBA), a program that assists families in the region to find financial stability.

Nicole Harden, Vice President of Economic Success at UWBA, says that their Sparkpoint program, which features centers scattered across the Bay Area that help low to middle income families establish financial goals, has grown tremendously since its inception in 2009. Anyone can come into one of their 23 centers to consult with a financial coach to receive guidance on how to increase their income, boost their credit, augment their savings, or reduce their debt.

She shared that it’s important for people to not feel embarrassed when talking about their financial struggles. Organizations like UWBA exist to help provide resources that they know are often inaccessible to underserved communities.

Harden explained that their centers not only cater to low-income families but see a significant number of women of color seeking assistance. As a result, they’ve taken the steps to ensure their programs are culturally competent to make conversations easier and more comfortable.

“We operate from the assumption that folks are creative, resourceful and whole. People have been making it all along, people aren’t broken. There’s systems that are broken, but this is an opportunity to work within the systems and help folks figure out how to navigate that,” she said.

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By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

The Assembly Committee on Elections recently held an informational hearing on a bill that would have given more “entities” the authority to register eligible voters in California.

Known as the California New Motor Voter program, Senate Bill (S.B.) 299 also promised to further automate and streamline the voter registration process while adding safeguards to prevent voter fraud or unlawful voting.

But the bill stalled in the Senate Health Committee last June prompting supporters to hold the hearing to discuss strategies for bridging voter turnout gaps, ensuring accurate registration, and reviewing the impact of recent electoral reforms.

Currently, eligible California residents are automatically registered or pre-registered to vote when they obtain or renew a license or state identification card at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or conduct other transactions. The DMV sends their information to the Secretary of State (SOS) office for processing “unless the person opts out or is ineligible to vote.”

Supporters of S.B. 299 are confident the law would enfranchise more Black and other marginalized voters.

If lawmakers vote to pass it during the next legislative session, the law will expand the definition of “voter registration agency” to include all entities designated by SOS.

S.B. 299 also provides an option to decline to register to vote.

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During the hearing, Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California, provided information on the turnout gap between Black and white voters.

In the 2020 general election, Romero stated, 64% of adult Black voters cast a ballot while 74.5% of white, non-Latino eligible voters did, a 10.5% turnout gap.

The gap drastically increased in 2022. White voters that cast a ballot decreased to 62.8% in the 2022 General Election while Black voters numbers fell to 43.3%.

“What I really want to emphasize is we still have to make it easier to vote but we also have to make people want to vote. It’s the ‘motivation question,’” Romero said. “It’s a story, of course, of our electoral system today that has not supported these groups and made it harder to vote and made it harder to sell the importance of voting.”

Several state agencies in California, such as Covered California, already have the authority to register or pre-register voters.

According to the National Voter Registration Act, federal law authorizes states “to designate state government agencies and offices that offer public assistance or services to people with disabilities, as well as other suitable offices, as voter registration agencies.”

Those voter registration agencies “could include schools, city and county clerk’s offices, fishing and hunting license bureaus, government revenue offices, and unemployment compensation offices.”

Under S.B. 299, SOS would have the authority to designate other entities to register Californians to vote and the process would be simplified with increased digitization.

S.B. 299 is co-authored by Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Van Nuys) and Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara).

“Voting is one of the most powerful ways to initiate change in the United States and simplifying voter registration will have an instant and dramatic effect on voter participation throughout California,” said Limón in a statement.

S.B. 299 provides a path to 100% voter registration, advocates say. It was designed to align with similar legislation passed in Alaska, Delaware, Wash., D.C., Colorado, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

As of May 2022, the state had nearly 22 million registered voters, about 82% of eligible voters in California, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report.

Currently, California has 4.7 million eligible but unregistered voters, according to GDC. They are disproportionately from working-class Black, Latino, and Asian American communities.

Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network, said the state has tried to improve the voter registration process but needs to push bills that prioritize the most vulnerable populations, including eligible individuals who were formerly incarcerated.

The other pressing barriers facing Black voters, Nimmers said, are a lack of understanding of the voting process due to information gaps and inadequate outreach, a mistrust of the system, and limited language access.

Nimmers also said that the pandemic has impacted the voting and registration behaviors in African American and Black immigrant communities. “Black residents are facing gentrification and displacement and are moving out of traditional Black neighborhoods … They aren’t updating their registration.”

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SACRAMENTO — A former priest who was held liable years ago for sexually abusing multiple children in the greater Sacramento region is back in the spotlight.

California attorney General Rob Bonta confirmed to CBS13 that his office will review why all criminal charges were dropped against Father Michael Kelly in Calaveras County in 2016. The charges stemmed from the alleged sexual abuse of victim Trevor Martin, who was 10 at the time. 

“That priest, he stole my son’s life from him,” said Deanna Hampton, Martin’s mother. 

Hampton has never stopped fighting for justice for her son. However, she felt silenced for years until a recent Sacramento Bee investigation revealed that the decision to drop the charges against Kelly may have been mishandled by Calaveras County District attorney Barbara Yook. 

“There’s a thread that needs to be pulled to expose all of this. I don’t know if this is the thread, but at some point, it is going to happen,” said Hampton. 

Martin came forward to his family as a teenager after a suicide attempt, finally revealing that he was allegedly molested by Kelly when he was an altar boy at the family’s Calaveras County church where Kelly served as a priest from 2000 to 2002. 

Martin, adventurous and daring as his mother describes, would tragically die in a freak base-jumping accident in 2016. 

“The DA told me as soon as they received a death certificate for my son, they were going to drop the charges,” said Hampton. “This is on the heels of just losing Trevor. Them telling me there is no longer a victim, those are their words, not mine. There is no longer a victim. It made me feel like his life did not matter.”

Now, 7 years later, Deanna is demanding answers as to why the DA dropped the charges.

She wrote a letter to Bonta in October after the publication of the Sac Bee investigation, asking him to reopen the case. She was shocked when she got a letter back just a few weeks later.

Bonta’s office wrote to Hampton, “In response to your request, we have agreed to review the District attorney‘s decision for abuse of discretion.”

The letter goes on to explain that when the attorney General is asked to review a DA’s decision not to pursue charges, they refer to a standard of review that includes asking: would another reasonable prosecutor have come to the same decision? 

The AG’s office says it has collected all of the case evidence from the Calaveras County DA and will begin reviewing it to determine if dropping Kelly’s criminal charges was justified. 

“I was an easy person to push to the side, I guess, at the time. But I am not now,” said Hampton of her determination and optimism in finally having renewed hope in her son’s case. 

Kelly fled to Ireland years ago before a civil trial on sexual abuse charges out of Stockton. He is believed to have lived in the country since. Hampton wants him immediately extradited back to the United States. 

Among many accusations, the Sac Bee investigation reveals the FBI arrested and jailed Kelly in Morocco shortly before Martin’s 2016 death. He was let go and Martin nor his family members were ever made aware. 

Hampton wants Kelly and every person who enabled his long list of alleged sexual abuses as a Catholic priest held accountable. That includes, she says, the Calaveras County prosecutors. 

“I think that they are all responsible. Every one of them are responsible for allowing it to just be swept under the rug once again,” said Hampton. 

CBS13 first reached out to the Calaveras County District attorney‘s Office on Monday for comment, a day before the publication of this story. We have not heard back.

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SACRAMENTO — October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and to protect victims, the Sacramento County District attorney‘s Office is teaming up to take action via a new app.

District attorney Thin Ho debuted a digital billboard promoting a new website to connect domestic violence victims with social services – it’s called Get Help Sac.

 “[It] allows domestic violence victims and survivors to find shelter beds, to be able to look and find out the status of the criminal case, to find out whether or not your abuser is still in custody, to be able to get counseling and services,” Ho said.

His office prosecuted nearly 3,000 domestic violence cases last year but says that’s only part of the equation. That’s why they are turning to law enforcement, hospitals and other nonprofits like the Family Justice Center to get the word out.

“Victims don’t ever expect to be in this situation so they haven’t prepared for it, don’t know where to go, oftentimes,” said Faith Whitmore, who heads up the nonprofit.

The Family Justice Center provides support in times of crisis. Whitmore knows what it’s like as she is a victim of domestic violence herself.

“It’s often a very lonely and isolating experience,” she said. “It will be an invaluable resource for those seeking help and hope.”

Clear Channel will be rotating the info on ten digital billboards in the Sacramento area to advertise Get Help Sac, which will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

“Our hope is that this message will be a constant reminder to everyone that there is a path to safety, healing and justice,” said Layne Lawson with Clear Channel.

There will also be public service announcements and other digital marketing efforts.

Victims will be presented with a flyer that features a QR code that provides access to all sorts of services in 150 different languages.

“Getting help or knowing where to get help should never be a barrier to getting out of an abusive relationship,” said Beth Hassett with WEAVE.

“Together, we’re stronger in helping everybody,” Whitmore said.

The California District attorney‘s Association is also rolling out a series of documentary-style training videos about what abuse can look like. Those premiere every Tuesday in October on their YouTube channel. 

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Reporter Rachel Wulff reports weekdays for CBS13.

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