Small Investments Can Yield Big Returns. Review of A Few Thousand Dollars
Over a dozen stories of how Americans from all different backgrounds have managed to leverage a few thousand dollars to lead lives that have helped thousands of other people, and strategies to reinvigorate a movement to influence asset building policy nationally.
Is the Housing Market the Answer to the Racial Wealth Gap?
In discussions around closing the racial wealth gap, we should be reminded that a very large portion of wealth gained by white Americans should be seen as ill-gotten.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Sept. 21
News from—and affecting—the community development world.
Measuring the Right Things: “Mobility from Poverty” Is More than Finances
How would you measure someone making progress toward escaping poverty? If you've been tuned in to the asset-building movement you might look at their accumulation of assets and preparation for a financial emergency. You might also want to look at cash flow. But can poverty-fighting be solely measured by money?
A Low-Cost Ownership Oasis in a Desert of Apartment Unaffordability
When this limited-equity cooperative in California began more than 30 years ago, it wasn’t the most affordable place to live. But now the co-op’s monthly costs are 50 percent lower than the average market-rate apartment.
Q: Why Don’t People Who Get Rental Assistance Get a Job?
A: More than half are elderly or disabled. Of the rest, most of them do have a job! Ninety-four percent of rental assistance receipts are ...
Data Drives the Movement for Economic Justice
A government report concludes that residents of low- and moderate-income Census tracts have as much access to bank branches as residents in middle- and upper-income tracts in rural areas and large metropolitan areas. Yet access to bank services for low- and moderate-income consumers is still being lost. Why is that?
Equitable Tax Reform Begins at Home(ownership)
Talk of tax reform has reached a fever pitch, but most Americans don't realize just how high the stakes are and what impact the final legislation could have on their own financial security for years to come.
Despite Progress, States Have Work to do to Ensure Access to Affordable Rental Housing...
If expanding access to homeownership can reverse the trends of growing racial wealth inequality, why are we seeing so many states roll back the supports that make homeownership possible?
After a Far Fall, Is Louisiana Becoming a Better Place for its Lower Income...
When the 2017 Prosperity Now Scorecard was published last month, it was no surprise that Louisiana ranked second-to-last among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as it typically falls somewhere near the bottom. In many ways, the Scorecard confirmed what we already knew: that most Louisiana families, especially low-income families and families of color, are not faring well financially. What was surprising, however, was how far Louisiana had fallen.
When a Person’s Character Trumps Their Credit Score
Some CDFIs approve loans based on a person’s character instead of their credit score. But they only recommend
doing so when you know the applicant.
CDFIs Led By People of Color Face Financial Disparities Too
A lack of access to capital, capacity-building resources, and technical assistance significantly constrains the ability of CDFIs led by people of color to achieve greater impact.
Unstacking the Deck for African-American Entrepreneurs
The truth is most entrepreneurs’ firms don’t grow quickly, employ people, or earn much money. And, more importantly, entrepreneurial success has far less to do with exceptional skill than with one’s ability to weather repeated failure and financial loss.
SoFi, Not So Good: Is This Virtual Redlining?
SoFi is practicing product segregation. It wants to serve affluent people with its best products and shunt low- and moderate-income borrowers into inferior products that do not meaningfully serve credit needs.
Reflecting and Planning Using a Community Wealth Building Lens
Over an organization’s 25 years in existence, how do staff and volunteers measure impact and build off of lessons learned to guide their next steps forward?
Why Giving Up on Homeownership Is Giving In
These ideas aren’t new, but pulling them together in a collective, coherent way will push back against those who, like their predecessors of 80, 70, 60 and 50 years ago, would deny long-term stability to those for reasons more than just the color of their money.
These States Are Trying to Level the Field for Disadvantaged Students
How would the trajectories of children’s lives change if they knew that their state, their community and their parents were investing in their future success for as long as they could remember?
Context for the Racial Wealth Divide May Free American Minds, and Mindsets
Black people were excluded from many of the income and wealth-building programs that helped build the foundation of white Americans’ wealth today.
Millennial Women and Retirement Savings: Start Where You Are
Today, most women have the autonomy and ability to take charge of our finances, but we don’t all do it.
Not All Asian Elderly Are Well Off
Too many of us have the misconception that elderly Asian Americans live a charmed life that is financially secure with strong family ties. This isn’t accurate.
Who Is Still Unbanked, And What Can We Do About it?
Seven percent of U.S. households, a group roughly the size of the population of Australia, were “unbanked” in 2015, meaning they have neither a checking nor savings account. This is the lowest unbanked rate recorded since the survey first launched in 2009
Keeping Everyone Afloat: Is Universal Basic Income the Answer?
Advocates and organizers who deal with the needs of the poor often say it's not really a housing/food/training issue, it's an income issue. So what would happen if we just addressed income?
How Does Mobile Banking Affect the Unbanked?
The absence of bank branches and the proliferation of high-priced alternative lenders in the region only underscore the importance of access to affordable financial services.
In Which a Skeptic Is Won Over to Child Savings Accounts
While I am a firm believer in equal access to higher education for all, it’s over-emphasized in our individualistic culture as a solution to society’s woes.
In Pursuit of Financial Well-Being: A Conversation on Fairness, Accessibility, and Empowerment
In a world of growing financial complexity, predatory products, stagnating wages, and escalating inequality, financial insecurity is a dramatic problem. We gathered a group of leaders who are combating financial insecurity for a conversation on how it all relates.
Is Financial Unsteadiness the New Normal?
A yearlong analysis of 200-plus households suggests that we should add a third leg to the financial security stool along with income and assets: cash flow.
The Ripple Effects of Income Volatility
Research shows a connection between the financial instability of families and the economic health of communities.
The Fight for Full-Time Work in San Jose
Unpredictable hours lead to unpredictable cash flow, which is a barrier to budgeting and saving. One response to this, the Opportunity to Work Initiative, would require that San Jose employers give more hours to part-time employees before hiring new staff.
Challenging the Almighty Credit Score
A majority of mainstream lenders base loan approvals on a hotly debated three-digit score. Are there better, fairer ways to assess risk?
Being “Well,” Financially
What does it take to achieve financial security for the millions of American households without it? Clearly full employment, higher wages, and a more robust safety net would be some major components. But as important as those are, they aren’t the full picture. Assets are an important counterweight to income.
Well Worth the Read
Reading What It’s Worth was like walking through one of the glorious Asset Learning Conferences that CFED organizes, equipped with a magical Harry Potter wand that allows me to stop and re-work time so I can peer into each workshop at my leisure.
College Bound: A Look at Children’s Savings Accounts
Children's savings accounts for higher education, even those that have accumulated only small amounts of money, can change expectations for low-income students and they might also provide a vehicle for larger wealth transfers.
Financial Inclusion Begins With Our Tax Code
Changes to the tax code, and tax programs that support low-wage earners, will strengthen gains made in the asset-building field.
Why Financial Education Should Get Political
Financial curricula for low-income households often focus on personal choices about budgeting and saving, but if they don't also address systemic problems, exploitation, and discrimination, they aren't speaking to their audience's reality.
In LA, a New Resource to Pull Families Back From the Financial Brink
Regardless of income level, a family that is just getting by is locked in a state of stress and vulnerability.
True Financial Capability Requires Expanding the Definition of Wealth
What is productive agricultural land and clean water worth? What are strong communal relationships worth? What is a clear connection to heritage, to culture, to past, to future, and self, worth?
Financial Counseling and Coaching Need to be Professionalized
What happens to families who are financially vulnerable and rely upon free financial counseling and coaching services to get out of debt or repair their credit score?
Scoring Homeownership: Looking at the Long Game
Today’s economic climate offers little hope to many struggling families. Family incomes still lag in comparison, for example, to rising housing costs in many markets.
Is Rags to Riches the Right Measure?
Comparative income quintiles don’t tell us very much about the material conditions of people’s lives. When someone rises into the top fifth, someone else falls into the bottom fifth.
Safe Banking for Seniors
To support older adults to safely age in community, we need to consider what they need out of banking—and what they need to be protected from.
Keeping Justice in Mind as We Talk Asset-Building
I attended my first ever Assets Learning Conference, put on by CFED last week, and I have to say it was mighty impressive. And I was particularly pleased to see that economic justice and things like reforming the tax code to be less regressive and reward savings by low- and middle-income Americans, rather than mostly […]
When The Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses Fought Back
Financial Justice is the untold story of how a diverse group of progressive organizations took on the powerful financial lobby, pushed Congress to create a strong new consumer protection agency and against the odds, won.
Q: Does shared-equity homeownership build assets?
A: Yes! And keeps them safer than traditional homeownership does.
Extending a Bank Branch to the Community
The systemic closing of bank branches in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods is followed by payday lenders, pawnshops, and check cashing services stepping in to fill the void.
Does the Current Reliance on Credit Scores Deny Deserving Applicants?
Last week, we asked readers if credit scores were too much of a driver in home loan approval. You answered overwhelmingly that yes, credit...
CRA Modernization: A Critical Moment for Underserved Neighborhoods
The Community Reinvestment Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act hold great promise for the creation of a more financially inclusive nation, but both depend on critical "moments in time" in Congress that will determine whether they become good laws or are weakened beyond recognition
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...