Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank
of San Francisco

Community Development Research Briefs

Research Briefs feature data and commentary on community development trends and issues.

  • “Bouncing Forward” from Disasters on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island: Lessons for Equitable Recovery and Future Resilience

    Elizabeth Mattiuzzi, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Beki McElvain, Univeristy of California, Berkeley

    Recovery planning and implementation on the island of Hawaiʻi following the Kīlauea eruption provides an example of equitable, forward-looking disaster preparation and resilience. This report explores the way planners and nonprofits used a regional equity approach to improving household and community resilience, broke down silos to have flexible funding from multiple sources ready for future disasters, and worked to build community through “resilience hubs” that provide disaster-related and ongoing services that help promote economic participation.

  • Residential Instability in the Bay Area through the COVID-19 Pandemic

    Jackelyn Hwang, Stanford University; Becky Liang, Stanford University; Vasudha Kumar, Stanford University; and Jason Vargo, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

    Drawing on a unique, longitudinal dataset of over 250,000 San Francisco Bay Area residents, this research brief examines residential instability—including moving, crowding, and financial health—in the Bay Area through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research finds a substantial decrease in moving for residents during the pandemic, particularly for residents of extremely low socioeconomic status. At the same time, we report a concerning rise in residents living in crowded conditions and experiencing declining credit scores.

  • Lessons Learned from Small Business Lending During COVID-19: A Case Study of the California Rebuilding Fund

    Rocio Sanchez-Moyano

    As the COVID-19 pandemic forced California businesses to shut down in March 2020, the fate of small businesses, which often had fewer reserves to draw upon when trying to survive the shutdowns, became particularly concerning. This report provides a brief history of the creation of the California Rebuilding Fund; details its structure, loan terms, and application process; highlights lessons learned from its creation and implementation; and looks forward as this fund continues to operate in California and as other states or localities consider establishing similar funds.

  • The Rapidly Growing Home Care Sector and Labor Force Participation

    Lina Stepick, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Brooke Ada Tran, Stanford University

    The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the growing need for professional home care workers and on the challenges of recruiting and retaining workers in the industry. This brief describes the state of the home care sector and its connection to the economy—both its role in enabling working-aged family members to participate in the labor force and the significant challenges it faces as a rapidly growing industry.

  • Overlooked Suburbs: The Changing Metropolitan Geography of Poverty in the Western United States

    Elizabeth Mattiuzzi, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Margaret Weir, Brown University

    This report examines trends between 1990 and 2014—18 in the location of populations experiencing poverty, which we define as those with incomes below the federal poverty line, within metropolitan regions in the United States, with a particular focus on the western United States. It includes data snapshots for Boise, ID; Honolulu, HI; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Riverside, CA; Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Seattle, WA; and Tucson, AZ.

  • Climate-Related Risks Faced by Low- and Moderate-Income Communities and Communities of Color: Survey Results

    Elizabeth Mattiuzzi and Eileen Hodge, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

    The Community Development team fielded a survey targeting professionals in the western United States from a broad range of sectors whose work on community development‒related issues impacts the personal and economic well-being of low-income communities and communities of color. Over 250 respondents shared their perceptions of how climate-related risks may be affecting the communities they serve and their organizations’ work. This research brief offers an analysis of the survey responses.

  • Constrained Choices: Gentrification, Housing Affordability, and Residential Instability in the San Francisco Bay Area

    Jackelyn Hwang, Stanford University, and Bina P. Shrimali, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

    Many residents of the San Francisco Bay Area have struggled to afford housing, particularly in places that enable economic opportunity. In this report, we find that housing unaffordability in the Bay Area prior to the COVID-19 crisis resulted in residential instability for many residents, as they faced moves, complex tradeoffs, and constrained choices in housing. These patterns held for all except those with high-socioeconomic status, regardless of whether their neighborhoods were gentrifying.

  • Paycheck Protection Program Lending in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District

    Rocio Sanchez-Moyano

    As part of the CARES Act, Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to provide conditionally forgivable loans to small businesses. Though PPP loans provided an important resource to keep many small businesses afloat, the program was easier for some businesses to access than others. This Research Brief offers an analysis of PPP lending in the western United States. It evaluates the number of PPP loans issued as a share of small businesses and how this share varied by zip code income.

  • Community Close-Up: The “Donut Kids” of California

    Community Close-Up is a photo series highlighting the experiences of people who make up our economy and stories of resilience from communities facing economic hardship. The latest in the series centers the voices and experiences of “donut kids”—a term coined by the children of Cambodian-American donut shop owners to acknowledge their shared identities growing up in and around donut shops.

  • COVID-19 Impacts on Housing Stability in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District

    Eileen Hodge and Elizabeth Mattiuzzi, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

    In the face of layoffs and furloughs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many renters and homeowners across the country have struggled to make their mortgage or rent payments. This brief provides a snapshot of the issues facing low- and moderate-income renters, homeowners, and small, “mom and pop” landlords in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District based on interviews our team conducted in July 2020.