IssueLab's Comprehensive News Feed

NYC OASIS: the Open Accessible Space Information System

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): New York City Labor Market Information Service. The OASIS website provides the richest source of community maps for New York City -- free and all in one place online. OASIS is guided by a collaborative partnership of almost 60 greening groups, educators, individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and public agencies who use online mapping technology to help sustain the city's open spaces and visualize the nexus between community greening and broader urban planning issues....

Reconsidering UK Community Development Finance

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute. The report includes ten case studies of community finance initiatives in the US and the EU. These highlight the different features of community finance organisations, their target group and their core activities in order to identify what aspects of their operation are integral to creating successful interventions in deprived communities. The objective of these case studies is to highlight particular aspects of their activities and operating environment that are instructive for CDF in the UK.
Woodstock Institute provided case studies of US CDFIs....

Reinvestment Alert 27 - Increase in Bank Branches Shortchanges Lower-Income and Minority Communities

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute.

New evidence indicates the largest Chicago area banks have not expanded into lower income and minority markets, despite the substantial purchasing power and concentration of potential deposits available in these communities.

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Reinvestment Alert 28 - New Mortgage Pricing Data Sheds Light on Subprime Market

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute.

An analysis of new federal mortgage lending data confirms that high cost subprime lending tends to be concentrated in minority communities and to African American and Hispanic borrowers. Reinvestment Alert 28 is based on new 2004 HMDA data which includes pricing information for subprime loans.

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Reinvestment Alert 29: Refund Anticipation Loan Usage Rates Negatively Impact the Asset Building Potential of the Earned Income Tax Credit

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute.

This report analyzes 2002 IRS tax return data to determine the impact of refund anticipation loan usage among EITC recipients in communities across Illinois. The report also calculates the total amount of EITC dollars spent on high cost tax preparation and refund anticipation loan products in these same areas.

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Reinvestment Alert 30: U.S. Household Debt Levels Are Worrying No Matter How You Look at Them

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute.

This alert analyses a variety of measures of debt to provide an overall sense of changes in U.S. household debt levels and the impact of those changes on different groups of families.

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Reinvestment Alert 31 - Measuring the Provision of Banking Services for the Underbanked: Recommendations for a More Effective Community Reinvestment Act Service Test

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute. This alert examines the service test evaluations of Chicago area large banks and thrifts to determine what information on services is collected and analyzed during the test procedures and looks at how regulators use these data to assess service test performance. The alert also discusses the limitations of the available data and makes recommendations for steps that might be taken to improve the effectiveness of the service test performance evaluation....

Reinvestment Alert 32 - Combating the Perilous State of Lower-Income Workers Retirement Assets: The Recently Reenacted Federal Savers Credit Provides a Modest Opportunity for Asset Building

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:01 -0400

Contributing organization(s): Woodstock Institute. The report documents the decline in personal savings rates while explaining the recent saving incentive for lower-income people created by the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006. While the credit is a modest step in the right direction for providing lower-income people the level of incentives currently provided to middle- and upper-income people, the report recommends that it be made refundable to expand its benefits to all income qualified tax payers....