WASHINGTON — About 200 people struggling to become homeowners filled the pews of Plymouth Congregational church on a recent Saturday morning. Some were self-employed, others short on a down payment, many branded by credit problems. Mortgage lenders would have thrown money at them a decade ago. Now, the chastened industry turns them away.

Bruce Marks, the unconventional lender who organized the gathering, is determined to demonstrate that the rest of the industry is wrong.

Mr. Marks’s nonprofit organization, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, has $10 billion in funding from Bank of America to make loans on its own terms over the next decade. It does not require down payments. It does not consult credit scores. Its loans all carry interest rates below 4 percent.  Read more