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Report
Beyond Investment: How CDFIs Support Community and Economic Development in Low- and Moderate-Income Areas
Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) support low- and moderate-income areas by providing not only investment, but also technical assistance, capacity building, financial coaching, and more. Drawing on transaction-level investment data and interviews with CDFI loan funds from across the Fourth Federal Reserve District, this report examines how these mission-driven organizations play a key role in community and economic development.
Report
Missed Connections in Cleveland: The Disconnect Between Job Access and Employment
The job access rate refers to the share of jobs in a region that can be reached within a typical commute distance or time. Job access rates in Northeast Ohio have declined continuously since 2000, as employment opportunities and the population have spread farther out (Kneebone and Holmes, 2015; Pacetti, Murray, and Hartman, 2016; Fee, 2020). Declining access to jobs has made it increasingly difficult for workers to reach their workplaces via public transportation, disproportionately impacting Black and economically distressed residents (Barkley and Pereira, 2015; Brown and McShepard, 2016).
Report
An Uphill Battle: COVID-19’s Outsized Toll on Minority-Owned Firms
Since COVID-19 sparked state-mandated lockdowns nationwide in March, data suggest that minority-owned small businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, facing higher rates of closures and sharper declines in cash balances as compared to nonminority-owned small businesses. Research shows that Black-owned businesses closed at more than twice the rate of white-owned firms and experienced declines in cash balances nine times as steep as nonminority firms in some cases. Black-owned businesses faced the greatest impact of any racial group, though Latinx- and Asian-owned ...
Report
Resilience and Recovery: Insights from the July 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flood
Because of its topography, location, and coal mining legacy, eastern Kentucky has a long history of flooding. This report focuses on housing in the 13 counties declared federal disaster areas after the July 2022 flood.
Report
Home Lending Trends from Select Counties in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania: 2018–2022
This series of reports examines home mortgages and refinances from 2018 through 2022, a period of great change. The reports look at seven large counties in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh); Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland); Fayette County, Kentucky (Lexington); Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus); Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati); Lucas County, Ohio (Toledo); and Montgomery County, Ohio (Dayton).
Report
Inflation Remains a Burden and Consumer Debt is on the Rise
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Issues Survey (CIS) collects information semiannually from direct service providers to monitor economic conditions and identify issues impacting low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in the Fourth District—a region that includes Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. In March 2023, we surveyed more than 600 service providers who directly serve LMI individuals and communities across our District and received 95 responses (15 percent response rate). The results of this survey, ...
Report
Community Issues and Insights 2026: Housing Affordability and Inflation Remain Top Concerns
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Issues Survey (CIS) collects information semiannually from direct service providers to monitor economic conditions and identify issues impacting low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in the Federal Reserve’s Fourth District, a region that includes Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. From March 2 through 13, 2026, we surveyed more than 550 organizations that directly serve LMI individuals and communities across our District and received 108 responses (19 percent response rate). The ...
Report
Broadband and Beyond: Getting Connected in the Fourth District
This report discusses three challenges to digital equity—access, affordability, and adoption—and the policies and programs designed to overcome them.
Report
Rural Employment in Four States: A Story of Specialization and Change (2010 through 2019)
The media are full of stories about rural areas suffering from economic stagnation or withering away from depopulation, but do these stories represent all of rural America (Swenson, 2019)? The short answer is no. While some rural places have experienced long-term employment loss, others have experienced employment growth. Whether facing employment gains or losses, a region’s success depends on its resilience or ability to prepare for, adapt to, and thrive in changing economic environments. This report looks at employment trends in the nonmetropolitan counties in the Fourth District and ...
Report
Community Issues and Insights 2024: A Record-High Share of Respondents Observed a Decline in Affordable Housing
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Issues Survey (CIS) collects information semiannually from direct service providers to monitor economic conditions and identify issues impacting low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in the Fourth District, a region that includes Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. In March 2024, we surveyed nearly 600 organizations that directly serve LMI individuals and communities across our District and received 100 responses (17 percent response rate). The results of this survey are summarized ...