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Working Paper
Navigating uncertainty and growing jobs: considering small employer firm resilience during challenging economic times
How have certain small employer firms demonstrated resiliency despite ongoing economic uncertainty? This study considers the organizational capabilities of small employer firms operating in low- and moderate-income (LMI) census tract areas. Based on the limited evidence gathered in this mixed-methods study, the authors propose that resiliency, defined in this study as a company?s ability to act effectively in response to uncertain economic conditions such that the firm maintains or expands its workforce, depends strongly on five organizational capabilities. These are: (1) the effective use of ...
Working Paper
The portfolios and wealth of low-income homeowners and renters: findings from an evaluation of Self-Help Ventures Fund’s Community Advantage Program
The distribution of wealth in the United States is more highly skewed than the distribution of income. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of homeowners and renters. Those who own their homes typically have about 20 to 40 times more net wealth than those who rent. ; Although home equity plays a role in this growing disparity, it does not fully explain why renters hold fewer assets than homeowners. Even excluding home equity, renters are more than twice as likely to be asset-poor as are homeowners. Renters also hold a smaller range of assets than owners, suggesting that homeownership ...
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 ...
Working Paper
Sought or sold? Social embeddedness and consumer decisions in the mortgage market
This research paper explores how mortgage market channels interacted with localized social networks to shape loan outcomes for historically disadvantaged borrowers. How did borrowers decide on their choice of lender? What loan products were they offered, and how knowledgeable were they about their loan terms? Were loans in lower-income and minority communities ?sold or sought?? To answer these questions, the paper relies on in-depth interviews, local data on mortgage lending and foreclosures, and analysis of the institutions and marketing practices in two communities that represent the two ...
Working Paper
CultureBank: A New Paradigm for Community Investment
Building on the concept of creative placemaking, this paper presents an idea for a Community Development Financial Institution organized around art: CultureBank. Housed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, this nonprofit bank will specialize in unleashing asset value in art collections and focus on artists as borrowers, or Artist-Entrepreneurs.
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
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
Paying for school: an overview of charter school finance
This paper examines the current state of the market for charter school finance and will focus specifically on programs and financing structures for school facilities.
Working Paper
CRA collaboratives and the San Joaquin Valley
California?s San Joaquin Valley is one of the nation?s most impoverished areas. Recent developments such as the foreclosure crisis and the Matosantos decision have heightened the Valley?s needs, and there is also evidence that the Valley is beginning to garner more attention from financial institutions and federal regulators. These developments create an opportunity for community-based organizations (CBOs) and financial institutions to work together in a mutually beneficial way. This paper describes how stakeholders have successfully collaborated to increase reinvestment in other locales, ...