scholarly journals Understanding Community Development Financial Institutions and their Impact in Low- and Moderate-Income Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 001-152
Author(s):  

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are mission-driven lenders that create economic opportunity for low-income communities and individuals throughout the United States. The history of CDFIs dates back to the 1970s. There are currently over 1,100 operating as banks, credit unions, nonprofit loan funds, and venture capital funds. CDFI financing leads to the creation of jobs, affordable housing, community facilities and more. This issue of the Community Development Innovation Review is a collection of research papers designed to expand our understanding of CDFIs and their impacts in vulnerable communities across the country.

2021 ◽  
pp. 107808742110326
Author(s):  
Noli Brazil ◽  
Amanda Portier

Place-based policies commonly target disadvantaged neighborhoods for economic improvement, typically in the form of job opportunities, business development or affordable housing. To ensure that investment is channeled to truly distressed areas, place-based programs narrow the pool of eligible neighborhoods based on a set of socioeconomic criteria. The criteria, however, may not be targeting the places most in need. In this study, we examine the relationship between neighborhood gentrification status and 2018 eligibility for the New Markets Tax Credits, Opportunity Zones, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Program. We find that large percentages of gentrifying neighborhoods are eligible for each of the four programs, with many neighborhoods eligible for multiple programs. The Opportunity Zone program stands out, with the probability of eligibility nearly twice as high for gentrifying tracts than not-gentrifying tracts. We also found that the probability of eligibility increases with a greater percentage of adjacent neighborhoods experiencing gentrification.


Author(s):  
Kristle Romero Cortés

The Treasury Department's CDFI Fund awards grants to community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that operate in low-income areas. Awards are intended to strengthen the institutions and increase the amount they lend to borrowers in those areas. This analysis of propriety data from the US Treasury shows that when CDFIs receive grant money, they put it to use as additional loans in impoverished and economically weak areas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 932-959
Author(s):  
Themis Chronopoulos

This article explores the rebuilding of the South Bronx since 1977. This rebuilding represents an important public policy accomplishment, since the South Bronx was one of the most physically devastated areas in the United States. In terms of economic policy, the rebuilding of the South Bronx defies linear narratives. One the one hand, public–private partnerships, which represent some of the most important features of urban neoliberalism, were used heavily in the revitalization of the South Bronx. Community organizations that had been rebuilding areas in the South Bronx in the 1970s and the 1980s were required to conform to the requirements of the market, if they were to continue participating in urban development. On the other hand, the building of housing for low- and moderate-income people is not exactly a neoliberal economic policy, since these housing units were built with public subsidies and regulated by government agencies. In its insistence to rebuild the South Bronx as well as other physically devastated areas, the city government of New York became involved in creative financing by incorporating nongovernment organizations that were ran by accomplished businesspeople but remained nonprofit. And whatever the original intentions of city administrations in building and preserving affordable housing in the South Bronx may have been, the accommodation of so many low-income people performing low-paying but essential jobs has contributed to the making of a more vibrant urban economy, even if these same people are not necessarily the ones benefitting from New York’s economic dynamism.


2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Bawa Chafe Abdullah ◽  
Wan Nor Azriyati Wan Abd Aziz

In 2000, Federal Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT), Abuja launched a mass housing scheme (MHS) under the platform of a public-private partnership (PPP). This paper reports an evaluation of this reform in order to understand the scheme's impact on the cohort of low-income group (LIG) in Abuja, Nigeria. The study explores the multiple data sources available, including literature and policy material and empirical evidence collected through structured and semi-structured questionnaires. The findings of the study suggest that the scheme did not significantly improve the housing status of LIG. The research suggests that the cohorts' history of exclusion in housing delivery in the Abuja deepened further due to partly an inadequate mortgage infrastructure to support their participation. Moreover, with poor scheme implementation, it is clear that the scheme strengthened the polarised position of the Abuja with respect to housing which runs counter to the stated policy objective to provide all Nigerians with decent and affordable housing. The paper concludes by showing the wider implication of the contemporary approach of the housing strategy in Abuja and Nigeria in general.


2019 ◽  
pp. 329-350
Author(s):  
Douglas Jutte

This chapter introduces the community development sector, an extensive network of financially skilled institutions and members that work collectively to reduce poverty in underserved and under-resourced communities by addressing social and structural determinants of health. Offering innovative and sizeable financial opportunities to invest and improve vulnerable communities, this sector shares a common mission to improve health, generates economic growth, and catalyzes and sustains multi-sector partnerships for population health improvements. The chapter adds some narrative on personal expertise as a funder at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and describes how they have gotten involved with Community Development Financial Institutions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 003802612091612
Author(s):  
Max Holleran

This article examines housing activism in five American cities using interviews with millennial-age housing activists, seeking more apartment development, and baby boomers who are members of neighbourhood groups that oppose growth. Many of the groups supporting growth have banded together under the banner of the ‘Yes in My Backyard’ (YIMBY) movement which seeks fewer zoning laws and pushes for market-rate rental housing. In desirable cities with thriving job opportunities, housing costs are pricing out not only low-income renters but also the middle class. The millennial activists sampled blame baby boomers for the lack of affordable housing because of resistance to higher density construction in neighbourhoods with single-family homes (characterising these people as having a ‘Not in My Backyard’ [NIMBY] mindset). The research shows that boomers and millennials not only disagree over urban growth but also more fundamental questions of what makes a liveable city.


Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rigolon ◽  
Jeremy Németh

Recent research shows that the establishment of new parks in historically disinvested neighbourhoods can result in housing price increases and the displacement of low-income people of colour. Some suggest that a ‘just green enough’ approach, in particular its call for the creation of small parks and nearby affordable housing, can reduce the chances of this phenomenon some call ‘green gentrification’. Yet, no study has tested these claims empirically across a sample of diverse cities. Focusing on 10 cities in the United States, we run multilevel logistic regressions to uncover whether the location (distance from downtown), size and function (active transportation) of new parks built in the 2000–2008 and 2008–2015 periods predict whether the census tracts around them gentrified. We find that park function and location are strong predictors of gentrification, whereas park size is not. In particular, new greenway parks with an active transportation component built in the 2008–2015 period triggered gentrification more than other park types, and new parks located closer to downtown tend to foster gentrification more than parks on a city’s outskirts. These findings call into question the ‘just green enough’ claim that small parks foster green gentrification less than larger parks do.


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