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Financial System
“Income is how you get out of poverty; assets are how you stay out.” How do we build policies, programs, and products that reduce systematic inequality and advance financial security for all?
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When the Feds Step Back on Fair Housing, Can States Step Up?
It's not new for states and localities to have their own fair housing and community reinvestment measures—but as the federal government backs away from enforcement, their versions may become more important.
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Running on Empty
For decades, community developers have relied on the power of markets to bring neighborhoods back, but they can’t build their way out of the foreclosure mess.
Asset-Building Comes of Age
From IDAs to comprehensive community wealth building, the number of strategies to increase personal and collective assets is growing.
Tanya Wolfram
Change is all around us. People change, times change. The community development work we do is geared to effect change – in politics and business, the quality of someone’s life, […]
From the Social Welfare State to the Social Investment State
The welfare state at the start of the 21st century appears to be in the midst of a transformation. The original consensus was that, if the market economy was sufficiently […]
Almost Home
Shortly after her 18th birthday, Cindy (not her real name) left her group home in the Bronx to live with her mother. Although under New York laws she could have […]
Insuring Reinvestment
Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have been fighting for decades to get equal access to financial services, fend off predatory lenders, and get the banking industry to reinvest in […]
Strengthening the CRA
In 1995, the last time federal banking agencies revised the rules of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), they promised to conduct a follow-up review in 2002. Now that 2002 is […]
Building Assets to Fight Poverty
As asset-building policy continues to expand, inclusion of the poor is the greatest challenge. Homeownership, as the fundamental American Dream, should be at the center of asset-building policy and community development.
Arts Build Community
CDCs now recognize that art and cultural activities can be useful tools toward building a community’s identity, meaning, and spirit. But bank regulators have not yet reached a sufficient level of comfort with this new strategy.
Predatory Lending: Subprime Lenders trick homeowners into expensive loans.
Laid off after 29 years of working for a local telephone company in North Carolina, “Roberta Green” was struggling. Although she had a part-time job driving a school bus, she […]
The Reports are In: Homeownership Rising, Renters Suffering, Income Gaps Growing
City Life, Homeownership, and the American Dream Americans’ impressions of cities are improving, according to Fannie Mae’s 1997 National Housing Survey, City Life, Homeownership, and the American Dream. Where the […]
Creating Stakeholders with Individual Development Accounts
Millions of Americans have built assets and improved their economic standing through higher education, business creation, and homeownership. Yet in order to engage in such efforts, most people need […]