Justine Petersen's Vision
The late Justine M. Petersen was a pioneer in implementing community reinvestment in St. Louis. As her legacy, Justine PETERSEN's products and services are modeled after the plan Ms. Petersen created with local banks and community development organizations.
Justine M. Petersen helped hundreds of low- to moderate-income families in the St. Louis area purchase their own homes. She worked with local banks to develop loan products for good homebuyers who had been shut out of the homeownership process because of income or location preference. She believed that owning a home promoted one’s building of assets and contributed to individual growth and, therefore, to community and neighborhood development and stabilization. For years she was influential with the mortgage industry as a pioneer in developing sound mortgage products and homebuyer programs through the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Ms. Petersen’s commitment to the economic advancement of low- and moderate-income people resulted in a permanent shift in community lending.