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.
Homeownership Without a Net
Despite some new reforms, low-income households buying homes outside the traditional mortgage market are still at tremendous risk—and often legal limbo.
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 scores prevent often worth applicants from receiving loans, and that...
Disappearing Act
Facing financial difficulties as new technology takes customers away, the United States Postal Service reviewed 3,300 branches to find those that could be deemed disposable. In low-income communities, just how disposable are the final 162?
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
Food Banks: Another Crisis Casualty?
Last week, when a prominent and long-standing central New Jersey soup kitchen went to the newspapers as a last resort to inform the public that demand was up, donations were down, and that it...
Discouraging the Voter
We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again, but, in Michigan—which is shaping up to be a crucial swing state in the presidential contest—we’re already seeing a mounting campaign to scare off potential...
Breaking Asset Poverty: Better Homeownership—and More
Rather than abandoning homeownership as an asset-building strategy the next administration must pursue alternative strategies: bringing back “good homeownership,” supporting quality affordable rental housing, and developing other ways to help families of modest means invest for themselves and their future.
Border Patrol
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data from the 2007 American Community Survey, and with it announced a new class of America’s poorest big cities: Toledo, Memphis, Newark, St. Louis,...
Asset-Building Comes of Age
From IDAs to comprehensive community wealth building, the number of strategies to increase personal and collective assets is growing.
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 productive, it could be...
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 stayed in the foster...
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.
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 1991 survey found that more...
