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Working Paper
The enduring challenge of concentrated poverty in America: case study of Fresno, California
This report is an expanded version of a case study that appeared as one of 16 community profiles published in ?The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S.,? a joint project of the Community Affairs Offices of the Federal Reserve System and the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. The intent of this publication is not to explain poverty causation; poor people, and the communities they live in, have been the subject of serious study and debate for decades. Rather, our goal is to add texture to our understanding of ...
Working Paper
Peer-to-peer lending and community development finance
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks directly connect computer users online. Popular P2P platforms include eBay and Craigslist, for example, which have transformed the market for used consumer goods in recent years. Increasingly popular, however, are P2P lending sites that facilitate debt transactions by directly connecting borrowers and lenders on the Internet. In the summer of 2008, the Center for Community Development Investments assembled a working group of community development leaders, investors, and Prosper Marketplace, the largest P2P lending platform in the world, to discuss the potential ...
Working Paper
Leveraging the power of place: using pay for success to support housing mobility
Families who use housing vouchers to move from areas of concentrated poverty to better-resourced neighborhoods have been shown to experience higher earnings and improved health. Housing mobility programs increase the effectiveness of housing vouchers by providing education and support to voucher holders facing barriers to such ?opportunity? moves. This working paper proposes using a Pay for Success financing mechanism to increase investment in housing mobility programs based on the hypothesis that health care savings stemming from a positive mobility outcome?specifically related to diabetes ...
Working Paper
Lending in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in California: the performance of CRA lending during the subprime meltdown
The current scale of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures - particularly in the subprime market - has sparked a renewed debate over the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the regulations governing home mortgage lending. On one side, detractors argue that the CRA helped to precipitate the current crisis by encouraging lending in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods (Walker 2008). On the other side, advocates of the CRA point to a number of reasons why the regulation shouldn?t be blamed for the current subprime crisis. ; What has been missing in this debate has been an empirical ...
Working Paper
Strengthening financial education in California: Expanding personal finance training among youth
Cross explores multiple options for expanding personal finance training among youth in California, including statewide legislation or education code changes for financial education, professional development and training for teachers on personal finance concepts, and school district adoption of financial preparedness curriculum.
Working Paper
Homeownership at high cost : foreclosure risk and high cost loans in California
The relatively low rate of mortgage default and foreclosure in California in recent years obscures the fact that many Californians have high-cost home loans that they cannot afford. High cost loans are particularly common in low-income and minority communities, suggesting that those who can least afford it are paying the most for credit. In communities where high cost lending is more prevalent, so is the prevalence of households that are defaulting on their mortgage. Homeownership may be coming at too high a price for these households and communities.
Working Paper
Boosting the power of youth paychecks: integrating financial capability into youth employment programs
This paper summarizes the results of the first-ever quasi-experimental design study of a youth financial capability initiative seamlessly integrated into a youth workforce development program. MyPath Savings supports low-income working youth to bank, save, and build their financial confidence through a comprehensive model that includes financial education, goal-setting, and non-custodial accounts. MyPath provided technical assistance and training to prepare nonprofits to implement MyPath Savings, as well as to the financial institution partner, Self-Help Federal Credit Union, to ensure the ...
Working Paper
The subprime crisis in suburbia: exploring the links between foreclosures and suburban poverty
In this brief, we provide an overview of patterns of subprime lending, as well as trends in foreclosures and REOs, in suburban communities compared to inner-cities. We also explore the relationship between foreclosures in suburban areas and the increased suburbanization of poverty. We find that the vast majority of foreclosures ?nearly three out of four (73.1 percent)?have been in suburban areas, and that suburban neighborhoods with higher rates of poverty are more likely to experience higher foreclosure rates. This is of concern because the mechanisms for addressing the challenges associated ...
Working Paper
Financial education in San Francisco: a study of local practioners, service gaps and promising practices
The landscape of financial education services in San Francisco is broad, with multiple organizations offering services for diverse populations. However, until recently, there has been little effort to coordinate the many resources and organizations committed to promoting financial education. The recently formed San Francisco Financial Education Network is a collaborative group of nonprofit service providers, philanthropic funders, and local public sector representatives dedicated to improving the provision of financial education services in the city. Network participants agreed there is ...