Search Results
Journal Article
Climate Adaptation Investment and the Community Reinvestment Act
Climate change is already causing disruption to regional economic activity. Low-to-moderate income populations are highly vulnerable to these impacts, in part, because they often have fewer resources to adapt. The stability and prosperity of local economies in the face of climate change depends on how well the public, private, and civic sectors can come together to respond to the shocks and stresses of climate change. Collaborative efforts to fund climate adaptation not only reduce the burden on highly vulnerable populations, but they also offer the opportunity for co-benefits within a ...
Journal Article
Recent Innovations in Reducing Home Energy Costs and Improving Resilience for Low- and Moderate-Income Renters and Homeowners
Community Development (CD) practitioners across the western U.S. are engaging in new efforts to reduce energy costs and improve resilience for low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and other populations that face barriers to economic participation and household financial stability. Energy costs and resilience are factors in housing stability, which impacts economic participation. New federal and state funding sources, as well as growing involvement from philanthropy and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)-motivated investors, have prompted growth in energy cost savings and resilience (ECSR) ...
Journal Article
Understanding CDFI Financial Data: A Primer for New Investors
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are gaining broader recognition as effective conduits of capital to underserved communities. As a result of the diversity of CDFI business models and their unique approach to blending different capital sources, these mission-driven capital providers have varied and often complex financial structures, and their financial statements can be difficult to understand for those not familiar with the sector. As interest in the sector from prospective investors has grown, so too has the need for broader understanding of how to assess CDFI financial ...
Journal Article
Residential Instability in the Bay Area through the COVID-19 Pandemic
This report draws on a unique, longitudinal dataset of over 250,000 San Francisco Bay Area residents to examine residential instability—including moving, crowding, and financial health—in the Bay Area during the pandemic. Our research finds a substantial decrease in moving during the pandemic, particularly for residents of extremely low socioeconomic status (SES). At the same time, we report a concerning rise in residents living in crowded conditions and experiencing declining credit scores. These trends suggest that COVID-19 rent relief programs and eviction moratoria may be successful ...
Journal Article
Suburbanization of poverty in the Bay Area
Despite its persistent association with the "inner city," poverty has shifted toward the suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past decade. Using data from the 2000 census and the 2005-2009 ACS 5-year estimates, this research brief examines the changing geography of poverty in the Bay Area and its implications for the community development field.
Journal Article
Overwork Impacts on Low-Wage Workers: Insights from the Food Manufacturing Sector in Oregon and Washington
Unstable scheduling refers to such employer practices as last-minute schedule changes, lack of advance notice, requiring employees to be on-call, split shifts, “clopening,” and variable hours and shift times. Evidence has shown that such practices can lead to underwork, or involuntary part-time hours, particularly for service-sector workers. But another, less-explored dimension of unstable scheduling practices—and the focus of this analysis—is overwork. Overwork stems from practices that can limit the ability of workers to get adequate rest and can heighten the bodily and emotional ...
Journal Article
Child Care, COVID-19, and our Economic Future
Child care is important for cultivating the future workforce, and it also ensures that working parents of today can participate in the economy, helping to achieve the Federal Reserve’s mandate for full employment. While child care in the U.S. is a piece of critical infrastructure, it is often invisible and undervalued. Straddling the lines between parenting, education, and small business, child care does not get the full attention and resources of any particular domain, and its contribution to the economy has been overlooked.Longstanding and widespread constraints in the child care sector ...
Journal Article
EITC in the 12th District
Within the Federal Reserve's 12th District, over 4 million families and individuals received the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for tax year 2007, totaling over $8 billion in credits. In this Research Brief, we examine trends in EITC usage across the 12th District, and look at how the EITC and tax time provide a unique opportunity to link lower-income households to financial services and other asset building.
Journal Article
Overlooked Suburbs: The Changing Metropolitan Geography of Poverty in the Western United States
This report examines trends between 1990 and 2014—18 in the location of populations experiencing poverty, which we define as those with incomes below the federal poverty line, within metropolitan regions in the United States, with a particular focus on the western United States.We explore how growing suburban poverty is distributed across jurisdictional boundaries that shape governance outcomes, including incorporated and unincorporated suburbs. The size of a suburb and its incorporation status affect its position within local-regional political structures, and smaller suburbs may be ...
Journal Article
On the Sidelines of the Hot Economy
While the current economy is often characterized as ?hot,? marked by low unemployment, stable prices, and sustained economic growth, many residents are not enjoying the prosperity reflected in the aggregate measures of economic well-being. This report focuses on those who have not reaped the benefits of recent sustained growth in the economy. The report highlights groups who have faced barriers to economic participation and documents interrelated rising costs?particularly for housing, transportation, and childcare?that contribute to keeping people on the sidelines of the economy.