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Volume 5, Issue 1 | January 24, 2013 

In This Issue:

Below is an update with a collection of news items that are relevant to Community Development in Ohio and the Ohio CDC Association. 

The Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) is holding their 4th Annual Community Development Summit on May 14th and 15th, 2014 in downtown Pittsburgh, PA.  Industry professionals will attend for two days of learning, networking, and sharing best practices around community revitalization with the theme of Reaching Across Boundaries. Sessions and workshops will highlight cross-sector and regional collaboration in community planning, land recycling, affordable housing, transit-oriented development, and neighborhood revitalization. For more information, visit the Summit webpage. 

Wells Fargo is offering home ownership grants with rolling deadlines and neighborhood implementation grants with an April 12 deadline.

Former Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) was sworn in as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on January 6. FHFA oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises that backstop around half of all U.S. home loans, guaranteeing more than $5 trillion in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. Watt will play a major role in reforms to the mortgage finance system currently being debated by Congress. Advocates are hopeful that he will improve access to home ownership for people of limited means and place the housing recovery on a more sustainable and equitable foundation. Watt could enforce a 2008 statute to direct profits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the National Housing Trust Fund.   

The Center for American Progress recently released a study of American attitudes about work, economic opportunity and the social safety net finds that Americans are largely supportive of government initiatives to decrease poverty. The study found that 64% of Americans believe that the volatile economic conditions are the primary force driving poverty rates, rather than the personal decisions of poor people. The report includes results from focus groups and survey of more than 2,000 American adults.

 

Eighty-six percent of Americans believe that government resources should be used to combat poverty, with policies to expand affordable child care for low-wage workers (86%) and expand nutrition assistance (85%) receiving the strongest support from poll respondents. Additionally, when asked about support for a national goal to reduce poverty by half in 10 years, 70% of Americans said they would support the goal, with 40% indicating strong support.

 

Also on January 7, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report finding that nearly a third (31.6%) of Americans lived in poverty for at least two months between 2009 and 2011. The report presents data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), collected between January 2009 and December 2011.

 

Of the 37.6 million people who were in poverty at the beginning of 2009, 35.4% were no longer in poverty by 2011. However, of those who exited poverty, approximately half continued to have incomes of less than 150% of the poverty threshold. In addition, 13.5 million people who were not in poverty in 2009 fell into poverty by 2011.

 

The Census Bureau's findings show how widely the effects of poverty are felt across the country, and the CAP poll findings show widespread support for policies to maintain the social safety net and expand economic opportunity.

Thanks for subscribing and reading! Please feel free to email us with any comments or suggestions!

Sincerely,

David Foust
Membership Manager
Ohio CDC Association