December 30, 2022

In this interview, Visiting Scholar Lola Loustaunau discusses her research with food processing workers in Oregon and Washington, how worker health and safety relates to full employment, ways to address barriers workers face, and COVID-19’s impact on workers in essential industries.

September 13, 2022

A constrained supply of new housing throughout California has exacerbated the challenge of housing affordability within the state. One solution to housing affordability challenges that has gained prominence through new state legislation is to construct more accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on single family home lots. In this interview with Susan Long, program director at Self-Help Enterprises, we explore how ADU financing programs can help meet housing needs.

January 5, 2022

The pandemic highlighted the important role early care and education (ECE) plays in the economy. To dig deeper into some of the key issues in this sector, the Federal Reserve is releasing a series of articles that discuss the cost, affordability, and racial equity issues related to high-quality ECE.

October 8, 2021

As part of our research on residential instability in the Bay Area, we partnered with the City of Oakland’s Department of Housing and Community Development to explore residential instability and racial inequities resulting from gentrification and housing unaffordability. Here are some key findings from our research along with considerations for policy and practice.

September 8, 2021

The pandemic exposed many of the cracks in how our country approaches child care and early care and education (ECE), but it also created an opportunity to address and improve how we support children, working parents, and ECE professionals. Find takeaways from a recent virtual event focused on managing and organizing around American Rescue Plan Act funds and the role of business in supporting and empowering change.

August 11, 2021

Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are cultural and economic anchors in their communities. Naomi Cytron spoke with four San Francisco Bay Area CDCs about the unique challenges they face in the COVID-19 recovery as well as the supports they need to continue to serve communities.

June 24, 2021

Climate shocks and stresses create and exacerbate personal and financial risks for marginalized communities. We’re surveying community development practitioners in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District to understand how climate-related risks affect communities and what they need to remain economically stable and thrive in the face of climate-related events.

June 2, 2021

Last year, we launched Investing in the Future of Child Care (IFCC) to take a deep dive into the challenges facing the child care market as well as the investments and partnerships needed to support child care providers. As part of our commitment to listen and learn from the communities we serve, we’re excited to introduce the IFCC Steering Committee.

April 15, 2021

Using data on mobility from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax Data, we examined the moves of individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2002–2018 to better understand moving patterns by socioeconomic status. Here’s what we found.

March 15, 2021

Birth outcomes are a reflection of how well we are doing as a country. And unfortunately, we are doing poorly relative to comparable countries, even prior to the current crisis related to COVID-19. Broadening the framework of how we think about health and developing approaches to interrupt cycles of intergenerational inequities is essential to our future labor force and to our economy on the whole.

January 12, 2021

The impacts of climate change on the economy present urgent challenges, particularly for disadvantaged communities. In this post, Ian Galloway and Elizabeth Mattiuzzi share learnings on equitable climate finance from the 2020 Financial Innovations Roundtable.

September 11, 2020

Access to affordable child care is crucial to parents’ ability to participate in the workforce, so we’re taking a deep dive into the challenges facing the child care market as well as the investments and partnerships needed to support child care providers.

August 14, 2020

Nonprofit organizations provide critical services for low-income communities, communities of color, and the LGBTQ community, particularly in times of crisis. Our new report, based on a survey and interviews, finds that many nonprofits in the Los Angeles region faced displacement pressures going into the pandemic due to the high cost of renting or purchasing operating space.

August 6, 2020

COVID-19 makes it clearer than ever that inclusion in the financial system is critical for households and businesses to access timely relief funds. Distributing funds at scale, however, presents numerous challenges, including issues related to technology and communication. To explore what it takes to have an inclusive financial system, Laura Choi sat down with Leigh Phillips, CEO of SaverLife, for a conversation on leveraging fintech, data, and strategic partnerships to strengthen financial health in times of crisis.

June 30, 2020

The issue of overcrowded housing has known health consequences and is particularly concerning in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To better understand the issue of crowding, we examined trends in people moving to more crowded conditions in the Bay Area using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax Data. Here’s what we found.

May 27, 2020

Nonprofit organizations deliver key services and promote policies that support the well-being and economic resilience of low-income people and people of color. To better understand how these organizations are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyzed findings from a Federal Reserve survey, focusing on responses submitted by nonprofit organizations serving the Western U.S. Here’s what we found.

May 6, 2020

In April, the Federal Reserve conducted a survey to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on under resourced and low-income communities. A new report, Perspectives from Main Street: The Impact of COVID-19 on Communities and the Entities Serving Them, presents the findings from the survey.

August 19, 2019

Bina Patel Shrimali sits down with Jackelyn Hwang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University, to learn more about her research examining the relationship between how neighborhoods change and the persistence of neighborhood inequality by race and class in U.S. cities.

June 21, 2019

In community development, we’re committed to identifying and reducing hurdles to economic inclusion, so that all people have the opportunity to fully participate and no one is left behind. But first, we listen.

June 16, 2019

As the costs of disasters to people and the economy increase, many in the community development field are thinking about how to increase the resilience of low-to-moderate income populations and to make disaster spending more equitable. A key component of these efforts center on pre-disaster mitigation investments.

May 9, 2019

Do certain regional economies offer greater opportunity than others for the more than two-thirds of adults without a bachelor’s degree? New research explores the jobs available in 121 of the largest metro areas in the U.S.

April 23, 2019

We recently partnered with the San Francisco Treasurer’s Office of Financial Empowerment to take a look at student loan debt for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area region using Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax Data. Here’s what we found.

April 15, 2019

Earlier this year, the San Francisco Fed partnered with Northern California Grantmakers to host a program exploring new research and writing on the shifting geographies of poverty and segregation in the Bay Area and what we can do to build a more inclusive region where everyone can thrive. In this post, Sarah Frankfurth, Manager of Collaborative Philanthropy at Northern California Grantmakers, reflects on themes and key points from the discussion.

March 14, 2019

With the recent launch of two $500 million funds to support below-market housing, increasing attention is being focused on other funds for supporting production and preservation of affordable housing. But loan funds aren’t new, and there’s a lot we can learn from existing funds.

November 7, 2018

While the topic of rising rents and displacement tends to focus on residential issues, we recognize an increased cost of real estate also has implications for nonprofit organizations. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is conducting a survey of nonprofit organizations in the Greater Los Angeles region to understand the scope of nonprofit displacement and how organizations are responding to the region’s challenging real estate market.

October 23, 2018

The Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) asks small business owners to detail their current business climate, financial needs and recent credit experiences. A new report from the SF Fed summarizes data at the state level for small businesses in California.

September 26, 2018

A robust and growing body of literature points to the importance of pregnancy and early childhood as time periods that influence health, development, and long-term life chances. Less attention, however, has been paid to how housing instability during pregnancy and early childhood affects a person’s health over the long-term.

September 4, 2018

On August 13, we gathered policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and financial institutions to discuss conditions in Bay Area Opportunity Zones, considerations for investors, and ways to ensure low-income community residents capture benefits from Opportunity Zone investments. Watch recordings and access resources.

August 3, 2018

Elizabeth Mattiuzzi sits down with Jesse Keenan, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design focused on urban development and climate adaptation, to learn more about his work and its connections to the community development field.

May 24, 2018

In March 2018, we gathered 1,200 community development professionals in Miami for the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference and explored the complex intersections between issues such as neighborhoods, health, and climate as well as the role of community reinvestment in promoting equitable development. Over the next few weeks, we will share videos and reflections from the conference, organized around some of the event’s key themes. We start with a focus on inclusion and racial equity.

April 17, 2018

In 2017, natural disasters caused $306.2 billion of damage nationally. Yet little is known about the impacts of natural disasters on small businesses, which are a critical engine of the American economy and are responsible for creating two out of three new private-sector jobs. A new report fills this gap by examining data from the latest round of the Federal Reserve System’s Small Business Credit Survey and provides insight on the impact of natural disasters on small businesses and their related needs.

October 31, 2017

It’s becoming increasingly clear that, when it comes to financial stability, simply having a job is not enough.

July 5, 2017

Guest author Steven Goldberg discusses expanding certified evidence-based programs through “Scale Finance,” an enhanced Social Impact Bond model.

May 23, 2017

Today in America, there are more than six million people who would like to find a full-time job, but thus far have been relegated to working part-time instead. And research tells us that the poverty rate for folks who work part-time while aspiring to work full-time is just about the same as the poverty rate for folks who have no job at all. Here are six things we learned about this issue by talking with communities across the Western states.

February 28, 2017

With its stunning landscape and rich culture, Alaska is known as the “The Last Frontier.” But the real “frontier” begins outside populated areas like Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau where decent, safe, and energy-efficient housing becomes scarce.

February 2, 2017

Our new partnership explores the role of community development finance in improving the health of low-income nail salon workers.

September 8, 2016

Regardless of how we feel about incarceration as a method of punishment for crime, it is important to calculate the compound effect it has on future generations and the broader community.

July 28, 2016

Addressing the intertwined challenges that contribute to poverty requires an equally comprehensive approach. Introducing a new approach.

July 15, 2016

The millions of Americans without access to a retirement savings plan through work now have an easy way to start saving. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s myRA (my Retirement Account) gives people a simple, safe, affordable path to retirement by breaking down common barriers to saving.

May 12, 2016

For many lower-income youth, a first paycheck represents an important opportunity to enter the financial mainstream, avoid costly predatory financial services, and establish positive financial behaviors and attitudes. The MyPath Savings program shows positive, scalable results that support low-income working youth as they bank, save, and build their financial confidence.

April 7, 2016

Would housing policy in the United States benefit from a greater emphasis on institutions that combine deep social mission with strong business acumen? A recent Housing Partnership Network paper explores the benefits of such an approach.

March 30, 2016

Many of America’s finest multi-billion-dollar healthcare institutions make their home in communities beset by poor health outcomes and racial and economic disparities. Nonprofit hospitals and health systems can no longer accept such disparities as facts of life, and the shift is well underway.

March 28, 2016

Evidence suggests that, when addressing complex problems, the common learning mechanisms in a field are not effective. Learning communities provide an opportunity to learn and network but with a more deliberate focus on knowledge exchange, team building, and innovation.

March 22, 2016

With the demographic shifts already underway in California and across the nation, recognizing and understanding wealth disparities is a step toward building financial stability and net worth among all communities, including communities of color.

March 1, 2016

If you missed the speeches by Williams and Lavizzo-Mourey that closed out the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference (NICRC) in Los Angeles, you missed a game changer.

January 19, 2016

In the past half-decade, crowdfunding has emerged as a popular way to raise money online for a wide range of projects, from films and video games to technology and clothing. The community development field in particular might be uniquely positioned to benefit.

December 31, 2015

An unsolved challenge–particularly in fast growing places like the Bay Area–is ensuring that economic growth, investment in new transit and infrastructure, and changing residential preferences do not lead to displacement of low-income households. Can data and research help shed light on pathways to more equitable and sustainable metropolitan areas? Bay Area researchers and practitioners believe so.

December 7, 2015

What do you need to know about how place-based initiatives can help achieve better outcomes for the people who live in those places?

December 2, 2015

The Great Recession sent shock waves through the world economy. Few lenders emerged unscathed, and the economic consequences for their investors and borrowers were often catastrophic. Community development financial institution (CDFI) loan funds, however, acted as economic shock absorbers for low-income and minority communities hit especially hard during the downturn.

November 19, 2015

Consumer input has long been an important part of the free market system. It allows businesses to change and adapt products and services based on what individuals want and need at the time. With this in mind, the federal bank regulators set up a consumer help center where individuals can file complaints against banks if they feel that they have been mistreated in any way. How does it work and what have we learned?

November 4, 2015

As impact investing activities increase, why is more of this mission-oriented capital not flowing to low-income cities and communities in the United States? Although domestic community investment has been around for decades, it is increasingly apparent that the necessary infrastructure to channel capital from traditional capital markets to community development organizations is lacking.

September 4, 2015

Investors, grant makers, and nonprofit organizations need to have some way to assess, manage, and communicate their real impact. This can be especially difficult when the two worlds of investing and philanthropy get mixed together as an impact investment, which is meant to achieve a measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. William Burckart argues that it’s time for people interested in impact investing to adopt the ideas nonprofits are using to track progress.

August 25, 2015

The successful reintegration of formerly incarcerated men and women is one of the most significant challenges facing not only California, but the entire country. It is an issue that disproportionately impacts the most socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Many of the community development program providers that are engaged with improving opportunities for low-income people are now stretching to extend these services to formerly incarcerated individuals.

August 24, 2015

Last year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America called for a broad range of sectors—including community development, public health, health care, education, transportation, urban planning, business, and others—to work together to create healthier communities. The call for this level of collaboration was groundbreaking, and its recommendations are critical to building a Culture of Health that enables all of us to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives.

June 15, 2015

A federal program exists to provide more homeownership opportunities for Native Americans veterans on Indian reservations, yet less than one in six of the over 570 federally-recognized tribes have accessed the program. This is a program that Native American Veterans have earned but relatively few are able to enjoy the benefit.

June 8, 2015

What is driving the pattern of extreme unaffordability in the western states? While the trend of too-high rents and too few units is consistent across our region, the factors behind the trend vary considerably depending on the location. Community practitioner responses from an ongoing Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco survey shed light on specific drivers of the affordable housing shortage particular to each area.

April 16, 2015

In just a few short years, the idea of pursuing community development in tandem with transit development has gone from being a novel and ambitious notion to conventional wisdom. What we now call “equitable transit-oriented development,” or ETOD, has evolved remarkably since 2008, when CDFI and transit sector leaders first gathered to explore how to finance such opportunities. But those of us working to make this a widespread reality know there are many challenges to creating smart, sustainable ETOD. This has been an important focus at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where we are trying to make it possible for ETOD to revitalize neighborhoods and increase mobility and access for all residents.

April 9, 2015

It should come as no surprise that small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy. There are 28 million small businesses operating throughout the country, and they are responsible for nearly half of all private-sector employment and 63 percent of new private-sector jobs. Therefore, maintaining an atmosphere in which these businesses can thrive is essential to the health of the economy.

April 8, 2015

Why should community developers care about cap-and-trade and what do carbon emissions have to do with low-income households? As it turns out, the fields of environmental sustainability and community development have significant overlap, particularly in the area of transit-oriented development, where issues of affordability, equity, and displacement converge with concerns such as vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

April 7, 2015

Research shows that poverty in early childhood can have detrimental effects on a range of achievement, behavior, and health outcomes in adulthood. The time between a child’s prenatal year and 5th birthday is particularly critical, and incremental increases in parental income during this time period can have profound and positive long-term outcomes.

February 6, 2015

What is it like to be a young veteran in the United States? How do veterans reconnect with their communities, and what kind of work are they interested in? What are the greatest challenges in the readjustment to civilian life and in what ways can neighbors, employers, elected officials and others best support veterans in this transition?

February 5, 2015

A “silver tsunami” is coming; an estimated 95 million people will be over the age of 65 in the U.S. in the year 2060, comparable to the current population of California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas combined. In anticipation, some financial institutions and community organizations across the country are partnering to develop age-friendly banking products and services that better protect and preserve the assets of an aging population.

February 2, 2015

A vital dialogue took place at the Fifth Annual Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Summit in Los Angeles on December 4, 2014. The central thesis was the implication of the dramatic rise in poverty and its impact on future economic prosperity, particularly as it relates to regional job market challenges.

January 27, 2015

Do you know your local bank’s CRA rating, or where to go to find it? Could you write a performance context for your bank’s next CRA exam? Most of us in the community development field are familiar with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) broadly, but the San Francisco Fed now offers resources for those who are interested in digging a little deeper into the CRA.

December 8, 2014

An iconic image of the 21st century recession is a boarded up house with a foreclosure notice pinned to its front door. The nationwide mortgage crisis, which began in 2008, has left behind thousands of evicted families and empty homes across the United States. If a foreclosed property was the image of the recession, now theoretically over, what is the post-recession’s photograph?

December 4, 2014

With 90 percent of the world’s data generated in just the past two years, a new book released today challenges policymakers, funders, and practitioners across sectors to seize this new opportunity to revolutionize our approaches to improve lives in low-income communities. What Counts: Harnessing Data for America’s Communities from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute provides a roadmap for the strategic use of data to reduce poverty, improve health, expand access to quality education, increase employment, and build stronger and more resilient communities.

November 19, 2014

The fields of health and health philanthropy have seen dramatic changes in recent years. Certain new players in health philanthropy – termed “nontraditional actors” (NTAs), to distinguish them from traditional health foundations – bring new approaches and priorities to the field. NTAs can have a significant impact on health and health care, especially if the extensive content knowledge of traditional health foundations informs their work, and by working with NTAs, traditional foundations can stretch limited resources and increase their own effectiveness.

November 18, 2014

The geographies that were hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis are now struggling with the rise of investor-owned single-family homes. This tenure shift from ownership to rental was most pronounced in those areas that experienced severe price depreciation and offered an abundant supply of distressed property. This trend of growing absentee ownership raises important community development questions around the issues of neighborhood stabilization, rental costs, property maintenance, and lost asset building opportunities for potential first-time homebuyers.

November 3, 2014

Pay for Success is a new financial and contracting tool that pays investor-funded nonprofits for delivering measurable social outcomes. This approach, while still new, increases investment in evidence-based programs and creates investable opportunities for impact investors and potentially CRA-motivated banks as well. One particularly ripe opportunity for Pay for Success is in health improvement. “Using Pay-For-Success To Increase Investment In The Nonmedical Determinants Of Health,” written by Federal Reserve researcher Ian Galloway for the health policy journal Health Affairs, explores how Pay for Success could be used to increase investment in illness prevention, save health care costs, improve patient outcomes, and create a market that values health, not just health care.

October 7, 2014

People typically pursue financial education on an as-needed basis and usually when there is a crisis or a big purchase involved. What it would take to get people thinking about their finances earlier on? How do we integrate financial capability into the everyday? The California State Controller’s Office is trying to promote financial capability via community networks rather than a standalone formal educational program. They will build a financial capability infrastructure enabling the experts and the high-touch community leaders to better serve communities by reducing program redundancies and increasing outreach.

October 1, 2014

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), hospitals are finding themselves in a similar environment that banks were when the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was passed in 1977. Hospitals now have a clear obligation to the communities (especially under-served ones) they serve through Community Benefits requirements, similar to the way banks are required to serve the needs of low-income communities through the CRA.

September 30, 2014

In the news and among the public, recent discussions have focused on the income gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. Yet the deep and growing divide between American households in terms of wealth – the sum of assets, such as retirement savings or a house, minus debt – has received less attention, even as it is proving deeply disruptive and quite difficult to reverse.  Accumulated wealth and diversified savings can be far more important than income for keeping household finances stable through volatile shifts in the economy.

August 25, 2014

According to a new report by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 60 percent of Americans describe themselves as “Doing okay” or “Living comfortably,” but a closer look at low-income households reveals a different picture.

August 20, 2014

We all know that San Francisco is an expensive place to live. While the data seems to indicate a city that is doing well on all fronts, it does not tell a complete story.

August 5, 2014

The Direct Access to Housing (DAH) program of the San Francisco Department of Public Health opened its first master leased, renovated single room occupancy hotel in January 1999 providing permanent supportive housing for 86 formerly homeless adults. With the expansion of access to health insurance in the majority of states in the United States following the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, there is increased interest in evaluating the DAH program to assess if supportive housing can help to achieve CMS’s Triple Aim (reduced cost, improved measurable outcomes, improved patient experience).

July 14, 2014

The terms “tech entrepreneur” and “low-income” typically don’t go together, but an innovative collaboration of philanthropists and investors is trying to change that.

June 17, 2014

Many bankers will continue to build long-term relationships and educate borrowers about options, even if the financial products borrowers are seeking are not offered at their financial institutions. This relationship building is not part of the bottom line, but it is a part of the small business lenders’ practices.

June 11, 2014

Infographic: These terms are often conflated, but they refer to two very different ideas. Understanding the distinction is an important step towards creating a marketplace that values health.

June 5, 2014

Video: Elizabeth Kneebone and David Erickson discuss how community revitalization is possible in suburban communities by adopting a cross-sector approach that engages education, health, transportation, job training, and other sectors.

May 14, 2014

The U.S. spends $2.7 trillion each year on health care—yet we are raising a generation of children who may live shorter and sicker lives than their parents. Recent changes in health care require a fresh, innovative look at how we leverage that capital and where promising investment opportunities lie to reduce health costs and improve lives.

April 30, 2014

It’s not surprising that the idea of collective action has gained rapid interest and followers recently. The framework, which seeks to produce true alignment of purpose across related sectors working on social, economic, and environmental challenges, offers a great deal of promise for making significant improvements in the life chances for disadvantaged populations.

April 29, 2014

The Housing California conference, an annual conference held in April with more than 1,000 participants involved in housing, included an informative session on the outlook on Pay for Success. Following is a summary of key highlights.

April 14, 2014

What would our economic and demographic breakdown look like?

March 10, 2014

How do you prevent disease caused or triggered by social and environmental factors? By meeting it head on in the community.

February 14, 2014

We all need a place to call home. Increasingly, a safe, decent and affordable home seems beyond reach for many Americans still struggling with foreclosure. Thankfully, nonprofit organizations have remained at the forefront, helping households and communities address the profound challenges and disruptions precipitated by the crisis and subsequent recession.

February 12, 2014

We’re seeing overall trends of lower unemployment rates, improving house prices and reductions in foreclosures, but many communities that were hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis continue to struggle.

February 7, 2014

We should encourage bold prototyping, supported by a public-private finance system that emphasizes innovation, lifts up strategies that work best, and jettisons those that don’t. Specifically, we need an approach that rewards positive outcomes and encourages reasonable risk taking and experimentation among social sector service providers.

January 10, 2014

Student debt is a growing issue, particularly as it relates to for-profit colleges and low- and moderate-income students. In this post, Laura Choi highlights striking statistics on the student loan debt burdening our nation’s LMI students.

December 17, 2013

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Sin City’s slogan may be appropriate for thrill-seeking visitors, but the people who live here have an important story that needs to be told. Beyond the spectacle and extravagance of the Strip, Nevada struggles with the nation’s highest unemployment rate, one of the lowest high school graduation rates, the lowest share of young children enrolled in early childhood education, and the highest violent crime rate.

December 5, 2013

Josh Ishimatsu from the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development highlights five reasons why AAPI poverty remains invisible, even though AAPIs have had the fastest growing poverty population of any racial/ethnic group since the onset of the Recession.

October 18, 2013

For many people living in the Bay Area, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is an integral part of everyday life (just ask anyone affected by the recent BART strike). A casual ride on any BART line reveals the economic disparity that exists between an affluent suburb, such as Pleasanton or Fremont, and the urban core of Downtown Oakland, but a little data can reveal how much deeper this disparity goes. Consider this: a short ride between BART stations can mean an 11-year difference in life expectancy.

September 23, 2013

The income of a county can often be directly correlated to the life expectancy of its inhabitants, pointing to a need for those in the community development field to rethink their traditional approach to health in low-income neighborhoods and embrace a more comprehensive, cross-sectoral attitude that addresses the “social determinants of health.”

August 26, 2013

There are almost 20 million employed youth in the U.S., and younger households are more likely to be unbanked. Earning a paycheck is a critical teachable moment and presents a unique opportunity to provide youth with access to financial education and quality financial products.

August 22, 2013

After years of gloomy housing reports, we’ve been seeing some promising signs of a national housing market recovery. However, these encouraging indicators mask the realities of what’s happening on the ground in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities that were disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. Complicating matters is the unprecedented role of investors in the housing recovery and the changing nature of local housing markets.

August 12, 2013

Interest in Pay for Success (PFS) financing tools, like the social impact bond, has been growing steadily since 2010. Many governments are exploring PFS solutions, including the State of California, which recently convened an informational legislative hearing to discuss the idea.

In his testimony to the Select Committee on Procurement and the Business, Professions & Economic Development Committee, Ian Galloway highlights four potential benefits and pitfalls, based on the most recent issue of the Community Development Investment Review, which explored PFS in depth.

August 5, 2013

People who live in economically challenged areas endure more stress and demonstrate higher levels of mental illness, are more prone to serious and earlier onset of disease, and live shorter lives, irrespective of genetic predispositions. With these challenges in mind, the Chicago Fed’s Community Development and Policy Studies department partnered with the Illinois Public Health Institute and others to host the Chicago Regional Healthy Communities Summit. This two-day event considered more deeply the common interests among community development and health-focused organizations in the region.

July 19, 2013

In his now legendary approach to urban medicine, physician and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grantee Jeffrey Brenner, MD, pioneered the technique of hot spotting—making block-by-block maps of Camden, N.J., examining residents’ hospital costs and identifying the handful of patients who cycled in and out of those institutions and racked up stratospheric medical bills.

What if America’s hospitals and health systems used similar techniques to identify the nation’s poorest and least healthy communities—and then teamed up with local community development organizations to set them on a path to better health?

June 21, 2013

Looking for economic data on housing and labor market trends in your state? Want to see zip code level maps of foreclosures in your area?

June 6, 2013

Affordable housing development and finance models must evolve and expand to replace lost resources and meet growing and changing demand.

May 6, 2013

At the aggregate level, the regional economy is experiencing recovery, but low- and moderate-income communities continue to face workforce challenges.

April 22, 2013

Data supports the idea that households whose balance sheets were dominated by housing, particularly those in depressed markets and those exposed to high-cost predatory mortgages, were deeply exposed to the downside risk that became reality during the Great Recession.

April 15, 2013

Pay for Success financing has the potential to improve the social sector’s effectiveness by rewarding programs that work, encouraging innovation, validating progress, and attracting private capital to the anti-poverty cause.

March 18, 2013

The Make Your Path (MY Path) initiative provides disadvantaged youth with peer-led financial capability trainings, a savings account at a mainstream financial institution and incentives to set and meet savings goals.

February 25, 2013

The vast majority of foreclosures have been in suburban areas, but the mechanisms for addressing the challenges associated with concentrated foreclosures are difficult to implement in suburban areas.

November 15, 2012

Vision During Crisis: Reinventing Neighborhood Revitalization, held in Los Angeles on March 1, 2012, was a call to action for principal stakeholders to create new approaches to neighborhood revitalization based on stabilizing the single-family foreclosure crisis.

October 23, 2012

One in six Americans lives in poverty, and where a person lives remains one of the most powerful influences of their life chances. Investing in What Works for America’s Communities: Essays on People, Place, and Purpose highlights entrepreneurial solutions for addressing poverty.

October 10, 2012

On October 1, 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco hosted Capital Markets for Impact at Scale to showcase content on “institutional” impact/community investing and the effort to mainstream social capital markets.

September 2, 2012

On September 6, 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco hosted The Future of Economic Development and Revitalization Post Redevelopment to address the recent elimination of redevelopment in California and how this change might affect efforts to attract private capital and finance projects that in particular have benefited economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

August 15, 2012

As summer draws to a close, kids across America are preparing for the inevitable: the start of a new school year. Whether they greet this season with dread or excitement, the fact remains that their educational experience will shape the course of their lives. Having the means to access and absorb high quality K-12 educational resources lays the groundwork for postsecondary success and ultimately higher paying jobs.

August 13, 2012

Dear Dr. CRA,

Like many other banks, we have a large inventory of residential other real estate owned (OREO) properties. I’ve heard that rental demand is increasing in my market – vacancies are down and rents keep going up. Could we rent out our OREO properties as part of our disposition strategy, and if so, would we get CRA credit?

August 1, 2012

If you had a mortgage loan on your primary residence and believe you were financially harmed during the mortgage foreclosure process by any of 25 identified servicers in 2009 or 2010, you can request an independent review and potentially receive compensation. The review is intended to determine if borrowers suffered financial harm directly resulting from errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies that may have occurred during the foreclosure process.

May 15, 2012

Dear Dr. CRA: 

I couldn’t make it out to Seattle this year for the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference, but my fellow CRA officers told me there were some great CRA training sessions.

May 14, 2012

Peter Drucker, the famous management expert, is often quoted as saying, “What gets measured gets done.” Over the years, this adage has taken on different forms, including “What gets measured gets managed,” and “What gets measured gets funded.” The fact that this statement is so easily adaptable, and appropriate in any number of contexts, reveals the power of data and measurement to drive action. Within the community development field, the implications of Mr. Drucker’s statement are all too familiar.

May 10, 2012

On May 8 in San Francisco and May 9 in Los Angeles, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco partnered with Enterprise Community Partners to host Building Sustainable Organizations for Affordable Housing and Community Impact.

April 20, 2012

The shifting geography of poverty compels the community development field to reevaluate how we do our work because it signals important changes in the communities we care about. It remains to be seen if suburbanization will increase or diminish access to opportunity, but we can identify several challenges that the suburbanization of poverty presents, as well as possible ways to address these challenges.