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Over the last several decades, thanks largely to passage of the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act, and compliance with a range of local, state, and national fair lending rules, many households and communities long denied conventional financial services have found access to credit. But today the rise in subprime and predatory lending has put many families and neighborhoods in financial jeopardy as default and foreclosure rates skyrocket, particularly in minority and low-income areas. Community groups, elected officials, bank regulators, and mortgage lenders themselves are debating how the nation should respond.