Community Development & District Engagement
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An Uneven Housing Recovery: Implications for Community Development
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.
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Beyond the Hype: The Promise and Pitfalls of Pay for Success
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.
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New Role for Health Care Providers: “Hot-Spotting” Unhealthy Communities?
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?
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An Overview of the San Diego Labor Market and Economy
At the aggregate level, the regional economy is experiencing recovery, but low- and moderate-income communities continue to face workforce challenges.
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Investing in What Works for America’s Communities: Essays on People, Place, and Purpose
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.
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Suburbanization of Poverty in the Bay Area
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.