Financing Low Income Communities
Publication Year: 2007
Published by: Russell Sage Foundation
Title Page, Copyright

1. Introduction
Access to affordable capital and basic financial services is a critical component of healthy communities. Without them, individuals cannot pay bills, save for retirement, or buy a house. Developers need capital to build and rehabilitate housing, commercial properties, and community facilities. Entrepreneurs...

2. New Savings for Old Innovations: Asset Building for the Less Affluent
Although the rich and poor both have the need and the desire to build financial assets to enable them to meet important life goals, there is a false dichotomy that is captured in the epigraph. Taken from an exchange with a successful financial services executive, it signifies the perception that the...

3. Financial Education and Community Economic Development
Over the last several years, the issue of financial literacy and financial education has risen on the agenda of educators, community groups, businesses, government agencies, organizations, and policy makers. It seems that nearly everyone is talking about it. For example, in November 2004 the GAO...

4. Making U.S. Microenterprise Work: Recommendations for Policy Makers and the Field
Microenterprise development is a relatively broad term that refers to the activity of supporting very small businesses through training, counseling, small loans, or some combination of these. Microfinance and microcredit, as the terms imply, are more focused on the credit aspect of supporting small...

5. Financing Organizations with Debt and Equity: The Role of Community Development Loan and Adventure Capital Funds
Community Development financial institutions (CDFIs) are intermediaries that help redress the financial exclusion of low-income communities. CDFIs consist of community development loan funds (CDLFs), community development venture capital funds (CDVCs), community development banks, and community development credit unions. This chapter focuses on community...

6. The Un-Banks: The Community Development Role of Alternative Depository Insitutions
One of the most important functions of financial institutions is to provide services such as checking and savings accounts. These accounts are the most basic financial assets that most households own (Williams and Hudson 1999) and, when held in insured depository institutions, provide a safe place to keep...

7. Financing Production of Low- and Moderate-Income Housing
Housing is a central component of community development. It is critical to neighborhood vitality, to family well-being, and, indeed, to the economy at large.1 Yet low- and moderate-income households continue to face considerable obstacles locating decent quality housing that they can afford.2 Consider...

8. Predatory Lending and Community Development at Loggerheads
For decades, cities have invested in decaying neighborhoods, trying to revitalize blighted areas and stimulate economic growth. Where their efforts have been successful, homeowners have experienced appreciation in their homes, safer streets, and improved neighborhoods. Cities, in turn, have benefited...

9. Measuring the Impact of Community Development Financial Institutions' Activities
This chapter reviews both attempts to evaluate the impacts of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and methods of evaluation. Some may find it highly negative about whether the impact can be measured. I therefore begin by explaining the rationale for presenting the material...
E-ISBN-13: 9781610444811
Print-ISBN-13: 9780871547118
Print-ISBN-10: 0871547112
Page Count: 344
Publication Year: 2007
OCLC Number: 654406015
MUSE Marc Record: Download for Financing Low Income Communities