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Working Paper
The economic crisis and community development finance: an industry assessment
For thirty years, the community development finance industry?banks, credit unions, loan funds, community development corporations, venture funds, microfinance institutions?has quietly provided responsible, well-designed and well priced credit to lower-income people and communities. These entities have provided this credit with the support of the federal government, through the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the Low Income Housing and New Markets Tax Credits, the Small Business Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and various housing and facilities development ...
Conference Paper
A financial services survey of low income households
In 2003 and 2004, MetroEdge conducted a survey of the financial behavior and attitudes of low- and moderate-income households in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC. While the results are consistent with prior research that this population is less ?banked? than the general public, they also show that much of the population uses both banks or credit unions and alternative financial institutions and systems for payments, credit and saving. Part of this is the result of network effects: checks are not a universally accepted means of payment in the community. The survey also shows a high ...
Monograph
A more modern CRA for consumers
Journal Article
Learning from the past: the asset disposition experiences of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, The Resolution Trust Corporation, and the Asset Control Area Program
While there is little to celebrate in the current foreclosure disaster, one potential silver lining in the large number of bank-owned properties is the opportunity to turn those properties into community assets. A May 2008 conference hosted by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University and sponsored by the Ford Foundation brought together policy experts and practitioners to share best practices for "Transforming Foreclosed Properties into Community Assets." Most of the discussion focused on what can be done by partners working together at the local level. The ...
Working Paper
Weathering the Great Recession: a CDFI case study in patient capital
This working paper looks at the lending performance of one CDFI, the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), through the Great Recession. Its authors argue that LIIF?s success weathering the downturn?relative to similarly-sized banks?is the direct result of a ?patient capital? approach to portfolio management unique to the CDFI industry.
Journal Article
Bridging the information gap between capital markets investors and CDFIs
Proceedings of the Conference on the Secondary Market for Community Development Loans The problem of efficiently matching buyer and seller is both ancient and ubiquitous. It is, of course, the source of the concepts of brokerage and intermediation. The situation in which sellers are small, traditional and local and buyers large, sophisticated, and national or, indeed, global, is an especially difficult one to get right?especially from the perspective of the sellers. But it is also the situation in which modern technology may be most useful. This ancient dilemma resembles the problem of ...