How Can Democratized Wealth Build Assets?

By Sean Luechtefeld and Veronica Weis on 05/22/2013 @ 04:00 PM

Tags: Economic Inclusion, Events, Integrated Service Delivery

This afternoon, we had the pleasure of attending “Democratizing Wealth and a Sustainable Future,” a New America Foundation event featuring University of Maryland Professor and Democracy Collaborative Co-founder Gar Alperovitz.

Video streaming by Ustream, Courtesy of New America Foundation

Building on some of the arguments put forth in his new book, What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk about the Next American Revolution, Alperovitz discussed democratized wealth as a linchpin component of a new economic politic. Under this new system, a more inclusive American economy would require:

1. Systemic changes (i.e., changes to the structures in place that enable increasing and unsustainable levels of wealth concentration),
2. Political changes (i.e., changes to how we understand the importance of democratized wealth)

Alperovitz provided a myriad of examples of wealth democratization, ranging from worker-owned businesses and credit unions where stakeholders actually get a vote, to models such as the Cleveland Clinic Model which focus on sustainable community development. As we listened to these examples, we couldn’t help but be reminded of how these models mirror, in a number of ways, the integrated service delivery models that are being pioneered by leaders in the assets field.

Take, for example, Haven for Hope in San Antonio. This 37-acre residential campus provides communal living facilities, employment assistance, financial education and training, and other asset-building services, all in a convenient one-stop center. The rationale behind Haven for Hope is that by embedding these services together, they can be delivered and taken up more effectively than when offered individually.

This logic seems similar to the rationale for the development around the Cleveland Clinic. As Alperovitz discussed, the idea in that community was to locate cooperatively owned businesses near “anchors” such as hospitals and universities that weren’t likely to leave the community, thereby creating long-term economic growth with the added benefit of giving residents easy access to health care and education services. Again, the logic supposes that bringing services together makes them more effective than when offered separately.

Our question, then (and perhaps unsurprisingly), is how we might bring democratized ownership models together with asset-building strategies to supercharge the effectiveness of both. In other words, how could the idea of cooperative ownership be integrated into a one-stop shop like Haven for Hope as a method for empowering low-income individuals to create their own pathways to economic mobility? Certainly, this is a complex question, but we’d love to hear your ideas.

As always, many thanks to the folks at New America Foundation for yet another thought-provoking event!

CFED Notes: A Foot in the Door to the American Dream

By Jeremie Greer and Emanuel Nieves on 05/21/2013 @ 02:30 PM

Tags: Recommended Reading

A Foot in the Door to the American Dream: A Forum on College Savings Accounts

Nearly every parent aspires to see their child walk across the stage in a commencement ceremony to receive their college degree. Undeniably, access to a quality college education has proven to be essential in climbing the economic ladder out of poverty and into the middle class. Unfortunately, soaring tuition and the burden of out-of-control student debt have threatened to make this important pathway to economic security out of reach for far too many young people.

On Thursday, May 9th, CFED and Opportunity Nation joined forces with Senators Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) to host a lunchtime policy forum to bring attention to an extremely powerful tool for enhancing access to a college education for millions of low income young people: Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs).

At the event, Senator Coons announced the reintroduction of the American Dream Accounts Act, which uses existing Department of Education funds to create expand college access opportunities to low-income students by monitoring higher education readiness through a personal online savings account.

To watch videos of the event, visit our Youtube page here.

Introducing CFED’s Newest Fact File: Microbusinesses – America’s Invisible Job Creators

As Congress continues to work on how best to create jobs in America, high-growth small businesses receive much attention. But a vast majority of small business owners (26 million, more than 95% of all small businesses) are running firms with five or fewer employees (often called “microbusinesses”), and their firms have not been the targets of many small business policies. This invisible majority of entrepreneurs are cafe owners, construction contractors, bookkeepers, child-care providers and other Main Street businesses.

• 22 million small-business owners are self-employed and generate almost $1 trillion in economic activity per year.
• An additional 4 million microbusinesses employ 1-4 people.
• While their overall economic impact is large, a majority – nearly 74% – of microbusiness owners do business in their local communities.

Unfortunately, 13 million microbusiness owners are financially vulnerable. Federal small business policies aren’t working for the smallest businesses, where and when it comes to research and policy that focus on small business, most emphasize the minority (fewer than five percent) who employ more than 20 workers. As a result, the majority of government programs and resources meant to assist small businesses are unavailable to these microbusiness owners.

For more information on the facts on Microbusinesses, click here.

Rethinking Pell Grants: Enhancing Access to a College Education for Low-Income Students

For more than 30 years, Pell Grants have made the dream of a college education a reality for millions of low-income young people. However, rapid growth in the uptake of Pell Grants has caused some to question the fiscal sustainability of this powerfully important program.

The College Board recently released a report that recommends linking two extremely powerful tools to enhance access to a college education to millions of low income young people: Pell Grants and Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs). In this report, The College Board recommendations center around the creation of “education accounts” aimed at narrowing the financial and information gaps between low-income youth and young people that grow up under more privileged circumstances. The College Board’s recommendations of linking these two important tools would begin to put college back within reach for millions of low-income young students.

To read the full report, click here.

The Racial Wealth Gap in America

Recently, our colleagues at the Urban Institute released a powerful three-minute video explaining just how pervasive the growing racial wealth gap is, which uses CFED's findings in our Upside Down report to illustrate how, despite spending $400 billion on asset-building incentives, the federal government still fails to reach the populations who need support in building wealth and financial security.

We invite you to view the three-minute video here.

Blogtakes: CFED Viewpoints

• Read Jeremie Greer’s, CFED’s Director of Government Affairs, blog post about putting college back within reach for millions of low income young people.
• Take a look at The Center for an Urban Future’s blog post about the Importance of Entrepreneurship Programs.
• Read Ethan Geiling's, CFED's Program Manager for Policy & Research, blog post about Hawaii Becoming the Seventh State to Eliminate TANF Asset Test.
• Check out Ethan’s blog post about the CFPB’s recently released white paper, which examined payday and deposit advance loans.

Asset-Building News Roundup - May 17, 2013

By Veronica Weis on 05/17/2013 @ 12:00 PM

Tags: Recommended Reading

Events

June 5-7, 2013 participate in the 8th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum, the country’s only conference that brings together bank and credit union executives, technology entrepreneurs, retailers, investors, regulators, nonprofit providers, and consumer advocates to discuss market opportunities for advancing innovative efforts and reaching the financially underserved. Presented by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and SourceMedia, the publisher of American Banker, the Forum provides an opportunity for organizations to share their successes and challenges in the underbanked marketplace. Register here to attend the Forum and use code PTNR13 to receive $200 off of the current rate.

NCLR is hosting an event on Tuesday, June 4th from 10am-11:30am at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The event will feature the release of a new NCLR report focused on Latino access to financial services, and will highlight immigrant inclusion in the financial market, and the ways in which citizenship provides new opportunities for individuals to build their financial capacity. The event will also feature remarks by Elizabeth Garza, Managing Director of Citi Global Consumer Banking, Governance, Regulatory and External Affairs, Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR, and Janis Bowdler, Director of Wealth-Building Policy Project at NCLR. You can RSVP here.

News

After a decade of advocacy, the Colorado legislature passed SB 13-001, which makes the EITC permanent set at 10% of the federal credit and also includes a Child Tax Credit. The bill, however, includes triggers that mean the credits will only be paid out of revenue above the current General Fund expenditures.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 25 states have bills pending on predatory small-dollar lending. In good news, the Texas House Investments & Financial Services Committee held a public hearing on SB 1247, which has already passed the Senate and would regulate payday and auto-title lending. Washington legislators defeated HB 2040, which would have replaced the payday loan system with an equally predatory high-interest installment loan system.

Senators Coons (D-DE) and Rubio (R-FL) introduced the American Dream Accounts Act, which would open college savings accounts for low-income students and monitor college readiness online. For more info, check out our President Andrea Levere's op-ed in Politico with Opportunity Nation's Mark Edwards here.

From the Assets & Opportunity Network

The Ohio CASH Coalition shared a blog post earlier this week with highlights from their recent brief, "Mothers and Medicaid: Expanded health coverage would help Ohio families."

The Assets & Opportunity Network developed five recommendations to curb predatory short-term, small-dollar lending for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Washington Asset Building Coalition, an A&O Network Lead Organization, is accepting proposals for workshop presentations at their statewide conference in Yakima from September 18-19, 2013. The deadline for proposals is May 24.

Scaling Innovations for Low-Income Families

By Kori Hattemer on 05/15/2013 @ 01:00 PM

Tags: Events, Financial Empowerment, Integrated Service Delivery

At CFED, we are always interested in innovative approaches to creating pathways to financial security for low- and moderate-income families, so I enjoyed attending a conference that Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and United Way hosted last month to share their experiences scaling integrated service delivery.

The conference, “From Promise to Practice: Scaling Innovations for Low-Income Families,” brought together philanthropists, intermediaries, researchers and government agencies involved with this work to share the lessons learned over the past 10 years as organizations have developed the integrated service delivery model. FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg delivered the keynote and Jonathan Greenblatt, Director of the White House Office on Social Innovation and Civic Participation, spoke, along with senior leadership from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the United Way, the Citi Foundation and the Aspen Institute.

At the event, LISC shared the method they developed for integrating services at their Financial Opportunity Centers, where staff members encourage clients to bundle three types of services—financial, income support and employment. Other leaders that are helping expand this model include United Way’s SparkPoint Centers and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Centers for Working Families, which was the impetus behind LISC’s work in this area. Since the beginning, these organizations have shared their experiences with one another and used their collective lessons learned to make adjustments and build a new evidence-based model for delivering services that improve family financial stability.

This model of integrated service delivery has produced promising outcomes, which led LISC and its partners to develop a national framework for scaling it. Using this framework, LISC has launched more than 65 centers in 25 cities across the country by standardizing policies and processes (to the extent feasible with diverse implementation partners on the ground) and building the infrastructure needed to support the initiative as it grows.

Recognizing that many organizations struggle to bring promising new practices to scale, LISC has published a report on their own experiences that is a must-read for organizations interested in scaling integration models. Report author Chris Walker said that among the factors that enabled their centers to grow were private philanthropy from foundations such as Annie E. Casey and Citi, federal funding from the Social Innovation Fund, and an intermediary approach in which LISC operated at the national and local level to provide technical assistance and training, maintain high levels of accountability, mobilize resources and develop policy.

CFED is currently involved in numerous projects to explore how asset-building projects—including financial education, tax preparation assistance, getting people banked and helping them to save and build their credit score—can be integrated into existing social services to build financial security and improve program outcomes. Our work in this area (which you can read about here) builds upon the work of these innovative philanthropists and practitioners who have integrated social services to increase financial capability and willingly shared their lessons and models as they evolved, as well as the many organizations who are currently involved in bundling services and integrating asset building. I look forward to continuing to learn from and alongside these innovative partners to improve our policies and programs that empower low- and moderate-income families to achieve financial stability.

You Might Also Like

• Five Lessons for Piloting Integrated Service Delivery [Kori Hattemer]

A Powerful Moment in the Children's Savings Story

By Michael Chasnow on 05/14/2013 @ 11:00 AM

Tags: Children's Savings Accounts, Matched Savings

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post originally appeared on the 1:1 Fund blog, which you can read here.

A couple of weeks ago, WNET’s Need to Know feature on the Mississippi College Savings Account Program, one of two 1:1 Fund pilot sites, aired nationally on PBS. Recently, we spoke with Ernestine Bilbrew, VP of Program Development for the Mississippi Community Financial Access Coalition (MCFAC), to hear how the Need to Know segment impacted her and the MS College Savings Account Program.

How was it having the ‘Need to Know’ film crew in Jackson, MS?

I think it was a really good experience for all of us that are part of the Mississippi College Savings Account Program – MCFAC, our partners, the children, our parents. With the early childhood development centers, the way they got involved and made each of the activities work – visits to the bank, parent workshops, the grocery store a field trip to Jackson State – it was amazing. We were able to capture the whole essence of the program. It highlighted the early childhood development centers and parents, who are central to the program. It was very educational for all of us, but a really positive experience for the centers and parents, as it captured their great participation and they were the key focus of the segment.

What was the most powerful part of the few days of filming for you?

Wow, several parts of those few days really moved me. First of all, when the kids went to the bank. Many of the students stood up on the stool, and would say they wanted to make a deposit. Then, the children would sign their name to show what they were doing, and make the deposit official. For me, this was very telling – these kids had taken ownership of their savings account.

Also, on the tour of Jackson State, the kids had so many questions – they wanted to know everything that was going on at the college, from the different subjects taught in buildings to where students would go to eat.

Then, with the parent session one evening at Jones Early Childhood Development Center, all of it really hit home. I did not realize the type of effect the program was having on parents, who were really proud that they were taking steps to help their children build a better future. That had to be one of the most powerful moments when parents were talking about how much the program had helped and motivated them.

What did you learn from the filming and overall experience?

I did not realize the impact that the program had on parents. Even though it is a children’s savings program, and we were more or less focused on the kids, I did not realize that we were having such a large impact on parents. Hearing parents say they felt very good about helping their kid go to college and reach their dreams, it was very inspiring.

And, it highlighted some of the gaps of our program, specifically around the need to work with parents more. One takeaway for us was the need to really focus on supporting and engaging parents.

Will this film be helpful to the MS CSA Program? If so, how?

It is already having a positive effect – others in our community now want to be involved. Other early childhood development centers, Head Start programs and other partners want to help grow the Mississippi College Savings Account Program, or are using our program as a potential model to replicate. Also, we are going to use the segment as a way of telling our story, and how child savings programs can really energize kids and their parents.

You Might Also Like

• Watch: Children's Savings Conversation Hits National Airwaves [Kristin Lawton]
• Opinion: Bipartisan Bill Invests in Next Generation [Mark Edwards & Andrea Levere]
• Why I'm Proud to Lead the 1:1 Fund [Carl Rist]

Housing Cost Burden on the Rise, Especially Among Renters

By Center for Housing Policy on 05/13/2013 @ 04:30 PM

Tags: Housing and Homeownership

The newest edition of the Center for Housing Policy (CHP)'s annual Housing Landscape report finds that severe housing cost burdens among working renter households have risen for the third consecutive year. Housing Landscape 2013 explores the latest American Community Survey data from 2011, showing that 26.4 percent of working renters spent more than half of household income on housing costs. While severe housing cost burdens stayed relatively stable for working homeowners between 2008 and 2011, roughly one in five working homeowners experienced severe housing affordability challenges throughout this period -- despite falling home prices and mortgage interest rates.

CHP, the research affiliate of the Washington-based advocacy group the National Housing Conference (NHC), charts the trends in housing cost burdens among working households from 2008 to 2011 in the latest edition of Housing Landscape. In addition to housing costs and income, the new report includes housing cost burden data from the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report defines a working household as one with an income less than 120 percent of the median for its area, and with members working at least 20 hours per week on average.

The share of working renter households with a severe housing cost burden grew over the three-year period due primarily to falling incomes and rising rental housing costs. Nationally, working renters saw their housing costs rise by 6 percent from 2008 to 2011, while their household incomes fell more than 3 percent. Lead report author Janet Viveiros says renters are stretched so thin by growing housing costs that many face impossible choices.

"The growing rate of severe housing cost burdens among renters is not a new trend, but it is clearly an unsustainable one," said Viveiros. "While rental costs have steadily risen over the last few years, wages for these working families have not fully recovered from the hit they took between 2008 and 2009. Spending most of your paycheck on rent means cutting back on other necessities, including healthcare and even food."

Co-author Maya Brennan noted that the causes of rising housing cost burdens among working renters include a difficult economy and an increased demand for rental housing, partly due to the crisis on the homeownership side of the market.

"While the economy pushed both owners' and renters' incomes down, the shift away from homeownership is pushing rents up due to increased demand. What we're seeing with the rental market is not explainable by population trends alone -- it clearly reflects the movement of former homeowners into rentals as well as delays in home purchases by current renters ," Brennan explained. "But this increase in rental demand has not been matched by an increase in supply. This imbalance leads to rising rents in markets across the country."

Working homeowners may have dodged the upswing in housing costs that hit renters, but they have not avoided the effects of falling incomes. In fact, while housing costs among homeowners fell some 3 percent over the study period, household incomes among these homeowners fell even more than they did for renters, down more than 4 percent over the three-year span. However, NHC President and CEO Chris Estes cautioned that a high and growing proportion of all working households -- renters and homeowners combined -- cannot afford their housing, and that little is being done to help.

"The challenge we face is that despite the range of successful tools to help offset this crisis, we are still in a long trend of flat -- and even slashed -- funding for these important programs," said Estes. Estes notes that a recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Commission highlighted the success of federal housing programs like HOME, the housing voucher and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and encouraged expanded funding for these programs to help respond to the housing affordability crisis.

Read the Housing Landscape 2013 report.

Jennifer Vuich: On the Road to Financial Security

By Veronica Weis on 05/09/2013 @ 11:00 AM

Tags: Financial Empowerment

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thank you to the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign of the United Way of Northeast Florida for submitting this inspiring tax time story.

Jennifer Vuich moved from New York to Macclenny, Florida in May 2012. A single parent with twins, no means of transportation and limited job prospects, she found herself struggling.

At the Northeast Florida Community Action Agency in Baker County’s orientation for electric assistance, she found out about the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign. Jennifer had not filed her taxes the previous year because of the move and she lacked a W2. The Baker county NFCAA staff worked with her to obtain the W2 from her previous employer. They also provided additional help by filing her current and prior year tax returns. To her benefit, she was eligible and received the Earned Income Tax Credit. With this boost, she was able to buy a car and pay her childcare bill.

This newfound sense of stability and opportunity even inspired Jennifer to find stable employment to provide for her family. She is very grateful to NFCAA and the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign for their assistance. Thanks to their free tax preparation services, she and her family are now on the road to financial stability.

Opinion: Bipartisan Bill Invests in Next Generation

By Mark Edwards, Guest Contributor and Andrea Levere on 05/08/2013 @ 10:00 AM

Tags: Children's Savings Accounts, Federal Policy, Matched Savings

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally appeared on Politico and you can read it here.

Every 5-year-old wants a piggy bank to fill with the jangling pennies and nickels that hold the promise of dreams. But for children from low-income households, even filling a toy bank can be a challenge. That’s why both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have come together to develop a plan that would help the youngest students learn the benefits of depositing their money in a real bank and saving for a future that includes college.

This week, Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will reintroduce the American Dream Accounts Act, which would create college savings accounts for low-income students and monitor higher education readiness through a personal online account. The proposal applies existing Department of Education dollars to encourage the development of online platforms that partner students with colleges, schools, nonprofits and businesses, and provide them with a savings account and college readiness tools.

If passed, the Coons-Rubio bill could be an important bipartisan catalyst for new children’s savings efforts nationwide, some of which are already taking shape at the state and local level. Last month, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, approved a measure that will provide all kindergarteners with $100 college savings accounts starting this fall. Similar initiatives are in the planning stages in Colorado and the Puget Sound area of Washington state. These efforts follow in the footsteps of San Francisco’s pioneering Kindergarten to College program, which provides a $50 deposit in a college savings account to every child entering kindergarten. Beyond the initial deposits, these programs seek to encourage families and friends to make regular contributions.

While the deposits may seem like mere pennies given the ballooning costs of a college education, more than a decade of research shows that even small amounts of savings can have a major impact on both college aspirations and attendance. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, for example, have found that children with college savings accounts in their own names are six times more likely to go to college than children who do not have an account.

As Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald put it at his program’s launch, “Every child in our area will grow up knowing that college is a real and attainable goal.”

The increasing interest in college savings accounts is an acknowledgment of today’s reality: College is indisputably a ticket up the economic ladder, but the soaring cost makes it out of reach for more and more families. According to the Brookings Institution and the Pew Economic Mobility Project, barely one in three children from the poorest fifth of families enrolls in college, and only about one in 10 graduates. By comparison, among the wealthiest fifth of families, four in five children go to college, and more than half (53 percent) graduate.

Children’s savings programs, which have the potential to offer big returns on relatively small investments, are a response with bipartisan appeal. Cuyahoga County’s program, for example, is expected to reach 15,000 students at an estimated cost of $2 million to $3 million a year. Moreover, funding to “seed” and “match” the accounts can come from private and philanthropic sources. The Corporation for Enterprise Development, for instance, recently launched the 1:1 Fund, which raises private dollars for the purpose of matching college savings by lower-income kids through an online platform.

We believe all sectors have a role to play in building strong ladders of opportunity for our children and youth, and that good jobs in our 21st-century economy often require a degree or credential beyond high school. Higher education is one important piece of a comprehensive approach that ensures every young person, regardless of that person’s ZIP code, has a shot at the American dream. With growing state and local interest in college savings accounts, policymakers should seek every chance to encourage their availability nationwide.

They can start by exempting education savings accounts from asset limits that could result in families losing access to much-needed federal benefits programs — a potentially powerful disincentive to save for their children’s future. They can also push for the integration of college savings accounts into existing programs, such as Head Start, and include a financial education component that helps both children and their parents understand the importance of saving for the future.

Finally, they should encourage innovative efforts like the Coons-Rubio legislation. In introducing the original bill last year, Coons posed a simple question: “How can we get more Americans to think about, save for and prepare for education after high school so that they can go to trade school, community college or four-year colleges or universities?” One answer: Give children their own savings account — and then help them fill it with hard cash and hope for the future through personal efforts and policy support.

You Might Also Like

• Why I'm Proud to Lead the 1:1 Fund: A Tale of Two Grandfathers
• Children's Savings Conversation Hits National Airwaves

Thelma Small: Financial Education at Any Age

By Veronica Weis on 05/07/2013 @ 04:00 PM

Tags: Economic Inclusion, Federal Policy

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thank you to the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign of the United Way of Northeast Florida for submitting this inspiring tax time story.

This year, Thelma Small of Jacksonville, Florida attended a Super Saturday event held on March 2 by the Real$ense Prosperity Campaign of United Way of Northeast Florida. At 82 years young, Thelma is living proof that improving your financial education and participating in free tax preparation services can happen at any age.

Thelma got her taxes prepared by trained Real$ense volunteer, Stephonie Holmes, and attended a financial education workshop. She was also able to access her credit report through the event. The best part? All of the services were free and the whole process took just a couple of hours.

One of Thelma’s daughters has been using Real$ense for several years. She’s the one who encouraged her mother and sister to this year’s event. Real$ense has really turned into a family affair for Thelma and her daughters.

“Rosalind Brown helped me,” said Small. “I would definitely come back to Real$ense, it’s a great service. I got lots of great information and my taxes are done!”

4 Graphs on the Importance of Entrepreneurship Programs

By Kristin Lawton on 05/06/2013 @ 02:45 PM

Tags: Entrepreneurship

Asset-Building News Roundup - May 3, 2013

By Veronica Weis on 05/03/2013 @ 06:00 PM

Tags: Recommended Reading

Events

Join us next Thursday in Washington, DC for "A Foot in the Door to the American Dream: A Forum on College Savings Accounts." This lunchtime policy forum is sponsored by CFED & Opportunity Nation. For more information, click here. Can't make it but still want to follow the conversation? We'll be tweeting with #CFEDforum.

News

Our friends at the Urban Institute released a powerful three-minute video this week explaining just how pervasive the growing racial wealth gap is. It uses CFED's findings in our Upside Down report to illustrate how, despite spending $400 billion on asset-building incentives, the federal government still fails to reach the populations who need support in building wealth and financial security.

Sean Reardon’s op-ed in this past Sunday’s New York Times,“No Rich Child Left Behind,” takes a look at how and why educational success gaps between high- and low-income students has steadily increased over the past three decades. The 1:1 Fund's Executive Director, Carl Rist, shares his summary of the piece here.

From the Assets & Opportunity Network

United Way of Greater Houston has launched Tweet My Jobs, Houston a new citywide online jobs platform to help Houstonians find work using innovative technology to combine the popularity of social media and the convenience of a smart phone application. This free service already has more than 150,000 Houston job postings from entry level to senior level corporate positions. Tweet My Jobs, Houston is available at www.houston.tweetmyjobs.com.

United Way of Northeast Florida (Real$ense Prosperity Campaign) shared a great tax-time story about Thelma Small, 82 years old, who attended a March tax preparation services in Jacksonville with her daughter.

The Community Action Agency of Southern New Mexico recently published findings from a year-long study from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to explore the feasibility of scaling asset building in rural Doña Ana County. Click here to read their research.

It's the Economic Mobility, Stupid!

By ThinkProgress on 05/02/2013 @ 04:00 PM

Tags: Economic Inclusion, Recommended Reading

The conservative trickle-down approach to the economy assumes that maximizing rewards for those at the top is the path to both growth and prosperity for the society as a whole. If inequality rises, that does not matter, runs the conservative argument, because absolute levels of prosperity will rise for everyone even if the top gains more.

The progressive approach to the economy is radically different. This approach posits, based on a mass of accumulating evidence, that inequality is not a benign byproduct of growth, but rather a toxic barrier to both middle class prosperity and strong growth in general. In other words, high levels of inequality interfere with the both the quality and quantity of growth experienced by a society. Hence the idea that an economic agenda must concentrate on lifting up the middle class to generate both broadly-shared prosperity and fast growth. The two goals are inextricably linked and one cannot be attained without the other.

Of course, the progressive agenda may be the correct one, but that does not mean it can be easily sold to the public and politicians. It would require a serious reorientation of national priorities and considerable investments in areas like education and infrastructure–spending that is likely to meet considerable resistance in the current environment. Therefore, the question of how to frame the agenda in the political marketplace is key.

One obvious approach is to frame the agenda directly as a means of reducing inequality. Call this the redistributionist approach. This approach is not without merit. Start with awareness of and views about economic inequality.

There is no doubt Americans are aware of rising inequality. In the Pew Research Center’s 2012 American Values survey, respondents were asked if they agreed that today the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. About three-quarters (76 percent) agreed, while just 23 percent disagreed. And the public believes it’s not just the poor who are losing ground to the rich—it’s the middle class as well. In the same survey three-quarters (76 percent) also say the gap between the standards of living of the middle class and the rich grew over the last decade, compared to just 16 percent who think it narrowed.

No wonder that a poll from October 2011 conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for The Hill found that two in three Americans believe that the middle class is now shrinking. And in a Democracy Corps post-2010 election survey, the public endorsed the idea that America is no longer a country with a rising middle class by 57-36. Finally, an October, 2007 poll conducted by political scientists Benjamin Page and Lawrence Jacobs for their book, Class War: What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality, found 81 percent of the public saying that the gap in wealth between wealthy Americans and the middle class has grown over the last 25 years, compared to just 10 percent who said it has remained the same and 8 percent who said it had gotten smaller.

Of course high awareness of inequality does not necessarily mean that Americans disapprove of it. But further data show that Americans’ high awareness of inequality is indeed matched by high levels of disapproval. For example, in a Pew poll in December, 2011, 61% said our economy unfairly favors wealthy Americans, while only 36% thought the system was “generally fair.” And in an ABC News/The Washington Post poll from January of this year, 55% of Americans said that economic unfairness that favors the wealthy is a bigger problem than overregulation by the government that hurts economic growth. Only 35% of respondents believed the latter was the bigger problem.

Moreover, in an October, 2011 nationwide survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the public expressed the following views:

• 81 percent of those surveyed agreed that “Regular people work harder and harder for less and less, while Wall Street CEOs enjoy bigger bonuses than ever,”
• 75 percent agreed that “Our economy works for Wall Street CEOs but not for the middle class. America isn’t supposed to only work for the top 1 percent”
• 72 percent agreed that “right now, 99 percent of Americans only see the rich getting richer and everyone else getting crushed. And they’re right.”

In earlier data from the Page/Jacobs survey, 72 percent agreed that differences in income in America are too large, compared to only 27 percent who disagreed. And 59 percent disagreed that large differences in income are necessary for America’s prosperity. In an October 2008 Gallup poll, 58 percent thought money and wealth should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people, compared to 37 percent who thought it was fairly distributed.

None of these survey findings are idiosyncratic. Careful academic reviews of public opinion on inequality over time by sociologists Lane Kenworthy and Leslie McCall indicate that Americans have typically been aware of inequality, sensitive to its increase over time and generally disapprove of the levels it has reached on our society.

So, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the public is both aware of rising inequality and disapproves of it. Naturally enough, given these sentiments, the public would also like to see something done about this problem. In a November 2011 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, 60 percent agreed that “our society would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal.” And 63 percent believed that “we need to dramatically reduce inequalities between rich and poor, whites and people of color and men and women.”

But it does not follow from all this–awareness, disapproval and the felt need for action–that the public would necessarily be happiest with a direct attack on inequality as implied by the redistributionist frame. On the contrary, in the February, 2009 Pew economic mobility survey, by an overwhelming 71-21 margin, respondents though it was more important to ensure everyone has a fair chance of improving their economic standing than to reduce inequality in America.

That preference for economic mobility over direct mitigation of inequality is also suggested by results of another question in the same survey. By 71-27, Americans agreed that greater economic inequality means that it is more difficult for those at the bottom of the ladder to move up the ladder. That is what Americans object to most vigorously about economic inequality: that it makes economic mobility more difficult. In other words, for most Americans what we have is not an inequality crisis but a mobility crisis. This is confirmed by results of a recent series of focus groups on inequality conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. Participants tended not to connect their economic difficulties with wealth and income inequality but bemoaned, more than anything else, the rising cost of middle class expenses like housing, transportation, medical care and college relative to lagging wages and salaries. This middle class squeeze, which prevents them from moving ahead in life, is what primarily concerns them.

The mobility crisis touches something very, very important to Americans. Americans retain a deep faith in their personal ability to get ahead even in adverse circumstances, provided they have a fair opportunity to do so. Here are some results from a survey I helped conduct for the Economic Policy Institute in March, 2006. That poll found that 69% thought they had already attained the American Dream or would attain it in their lifetimes (note: this figure was actually higher–75%–in a CAP poll conducted in February, 2009 after the financial crisis had hit). And while 60% rated themselves between poor and middle class now on a 10 point economic scale (1-5), 59% said they would be between middle class and wealthy (6 to 10) within 10 years. Finally, while 80% described themselves as working class, middle class, or lower class today, 44% believed it was very or somewhat likely that they would become wealthy in the future.

This personal optimism can and does co-exist with negative views about the overall state of the economy. In the EPI poll, respondents were asked whether economic uncertainty and inequality or success in achieving the American Dream characterizes the economy today. Here is the choice posed by the question:

• Most people today face increasing uncertainty about employment, with stagnant incomes, paying more for health care, taxes, and retirement, while those at the top have booming incomes and lower taxes

OR

• Our economy faces ups and downs, but most people can expect to better themselves, see rising incomes, find good jobs and provide economic security for their families. The American dream is very much alive.

By 2:1 (64%-32%), respondents selected the first statement about increasing uncertainty as coming closer to their views. But of that group that said that increasing uncertainty, rather than achieving the American Dream, characterized the economy, an amazing 63% nevertheless thought that they themselves would achieve the Dream.

This personal optimism and aspirational outlook is broadly shared across social groups. For example, 69% of the white working class and 74 % of the white middle class believed they have reached or will reach the American Dream, as did 67% of women, 72% of men, 66% of blacks, and 74% of Hispanics (blacks and Hispanics were less likely than whites to believe they had already attained the Dream, but made up for it by being more likely to believe they will attain it in the future).

This aspirational outlook helps explain a stunning finding from the Page/Jacobs survey. A whopping 97 percent agreed (including 85 percent who strongly agreed) that everyone in America should have equal opportunities to get ahead. This is as close to a consensual viewpoint as you find in American public opinion, suggesting the power of a mobility, rather than redistributionist, frame for the progressive economic agenda.

The mobility frame has a strong connection in the public mind to the need for government action. In the 2011 Pew economic mobility survey, an overwhelming 83 percent said they wanted the government to either provide opportunities for the poor and middle class to improve their economic situation or prevent them from falling behind or both. In the same survey, education, a central part of the progressive economic agenda, loomed especially large as a way the government should help provide those opportunities. Ensuring all children get a quality education was rated the highest among options to help people get ahead (88 percent rated it as one of the most important/very important). And improving the quality of elementary and secondary education and making college more affordable were two of the top four options for preventing downward mobility (84 and 80 percent, respectively, one of the most effective/very effective).

Other options that rated highly in this or the 2009 Pew economic mobility survey included promoting job creation, providing basic needs to the very poor, reducing the costs of health care, helping small businesses and business owners, more job training programs and education for adult workers, making it easier to save for retirement and early childhood learning programs. All these mobility-promoting steps are central, of course, to the progressive economic agenda.

In conclusion, the mobility frame lends itself to an “aspirational populism” that makes explicit the argument that current levels of inequality are not just unfair but directly interfere with mobility and economic growth. Not only is there a growing body of economic evidence for the argument but it accords well with the common sense of voters. And perhaps the common sense of an increasing number of politicians. As the President himself has remarked (April, 2012 speech in Florida):

"In this country, prosperity has never trickled down from the wealthy few. Prosperity has always come from the bottom up, from a strong and growing middle class. That’s how a generation who went to college on the GI Bill — including my grandfather — helped build the most prosperous economy that the world has ever known. That’s why a CEO like Henry Ford made a point to pay his workers enough money so that they could buy the cars that they were building. Because he understood, look, there’s no point in me having all this and then nobody can buy my cars. I’ve got to pay my workers enough so that they buy the cars, and that in turn creates more business and more prosperity for everybody."

That about says it all.

Putting College Back Within Reach

By Jeremie Greer on 05/02/2013 @ 10:00 AM

Tags: Children’s Savings Accounts, Education, Federal Policy

Access to a quality college education has proven to be essential to climbing the economic ladder out of poverty and into the middle class. Unfortunately, runaway tuition and out-of-control student debt have made college an unattainable aspiration for far too many. In a report released earlier this month, the College Board recommends linking two extremely powerful tools for enhancing access to a college education for millions of low income young people: Pell Grants and Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs).

For more than 30 years, Pell Grants have made the dream of a college education a reality for millions of low-income young people. As a former Pell Grant recipient, I can personally attest to the power of the Pell grant, which made my own college education possible and positioned me to serve in the capacity I do today. However, rapid growth in the uptake of Pell Grants has caused some to question the fiscal sustainability of this powerfully important program.

So, how can Pell be saved? In its report, “Rethinking Pell Grants,” the College Board recommends the creation of “education accounts” aimed at narrowing the financial and information gaps between low-income youth and young people that grow up under more privileged circumstances.

Here is how the recommendation of the College Board would work:

1. The federal government would supplement a student’s future Pell Grant by opening an education account for 11- or 12-year-old children who would be eligible for Pell Grants if they were entering college.
2. The federal government would then make annual deposits equal to 5-10% of the Pell Grant they would receive if they were enrolled in college. These funds would accrue interest until the child is 17 and ready to expend the funds for college.
3. The funds could only be used to pay college expenses.
4. Children and parents would receive annual notification of the amount of funds available in their accounts.

The College Board estimates that, if the deposits were equal to 10% of the current average Pell Grant value, at current Pell Grant enrollment levels, the cost of the program would be about $3.7 billion per year. Furthermore, the government would only spend the funds at the point of withdrawal, not when they were credited to the accounts.

As CFED President Andrea Levere often says, “parents will do for their children what they will not do for themselves.” This simple truth has guided CFED’s belief that CSAs are elemental to the economic security and mobility of households, and by extension our country’s economic success. We believe, and research finds, that CSAs can increase college access for low-income individuals and families. Research by Washington University in St. Louis has found that children with college savings accounts in their own names are six times more likely to go to college than children without accounts.

The possibilities evident in these findings have made policymakers at all levels of government take notice. San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College program is pioneering a bold and burgeoning state and local effort to make CSAs widely accessible to all children. More recently, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced an effort to open CSAs seeded with $100 for all kindergarteners starting the fall of 2013, while similar initiatives are in planning stages in Colorado and Washington State. Further, Senators Christopher Coons and Marco Rubio have introduced the American Dreams Account Act, which uses existing Department of Education funds to create CSAs for low-income students and to monitor higher education readiness through a personal online savings account.

Bringing together these powerful instruments—Pell Grants and CSAs—has the potential to be a game-changer in the field of college access, and CFED looks forward to working with the College Board to advance these policy recommendations.

The Best Way to Spend 3 Extra Minutes

By Sean Luechtefeld on 05/01/2013 @ 03:00 PM

Tags: Economic Inclusion

Our friends at the Urban Institute just released this powerful three-minute video explaining just how pervasive the burgeoning racial wealth gap is. It uses CFED's findings in our Upside Down report to illustrate how, despite spending $400 billion on asset-building incentives, the federal government still fails to reach the populations who need support in building wealth and financial security. Seriously, this will likely be the three most powerful minutes you'll spend today.

CFSI Gathers Market Leaders to Discuss Successful Underbanked Strategies

By Sarah Gordon, Guest Contributor on 05/01/2013 @ 12:30 PM

Tags: Events, Financial Empowerment

Yesterday, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) brought together policymakers, regulators, consumer advocates and others to mark the end of Financial Capability Month. The gathering, called Improving Americans’ Financial Capability: Early Lessons and Emerging Innovations for Changing Consumer Behavior, explored the power of combining personalized, timely financial information and advice with high-quality financial products and services.

Given the important role public policy can and should play in fostering an environment where this kind of innovation can flourish, we were pleased to take our conversation to the Hill. Our discussion opened with remarks by Melissa Koide, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Consumer Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and she offered her unique perspective on the state of financial capability in America. The convening was hosted by congressional leaders Rep. Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rep. Steve Steivers (R-OH), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Financial & Economic Literacy Caucus.

Jeanne Hogarth, Vice President of Policy, CFSI, welcomed a group of distinguished panelists and guests to the event to share insights on a wide variety of interventions impacting financial service providers, regulators, policymakers and funders. Throughout the month, we’ve had the chance to shine a spotlight on innovators who are at the center of the movement to build financial capability around the country.

Jayson Halladay, one of CFSI’s 2010 Financial Capability Innovation Fund grantees, talked about the success of his company, Piggymojo, in using visualization, social commitments, and mobile and online technology to help consumers quantify and enjoy the act of not buying. His comments, along with insights and guidance from the rest of the panelists, offered a fresh view of the financial services market as fertile ground for future innovation.

In fact, promising products and services like Piggymojo are popping up across the country. Representing the best of these efforts, a cohort of nonprofit innovators who were recently awarded a total of $2.5 million through the Financial Capability Innovation Fund II (FCIF II), CFSI’s competitive grant program, discussed their cutting-edge strategies for enabling families to build savings, improve their credit and better manage their finances.

Supporting the evolution of financial capability introduces CFSI to a wide group of innovators. We dig deeper into the current trends of innovation in our recently released report, “Stretch Time: Continuing to Reach for Financial Capability, Trends from the Financial Capability Innovation Fund II.” In the report, we analyze the FCIF II’s high-quality applicant pool, consisting of 127 applications from 38 states and Washington, DC. Highlighting the common features seen in the applications, the results demonstrate widespread adoption of new strategies for building financial capability. We are also excited to see a greater focus on changing consumer behavior and an increased emphasis on sustainability and scalability.

By lifting up successful strategies like those presented on the Hill today and those included in our new report, CFSI seeks to guide and empower others to join us in taking action. Thanks to a remarkable kind of cross-sector collaboration, we are developing a more thorough understanding of consumer needs and ultimately offer a brighter future to all consumers.

Why I’m Proud to Lead the 1:1 Fund – A Tale of Two Grandfathers

By Carl Rist on 04/30/2013 @ 02:00 PM

Tags: Children's Savings Accounts

EDITOR'S NOTE: This blog post was originally published on the 1:1 Fund's blog and can be read here.

Like many children who grow up in a middle-class household with university-educated parents, I had the notion of going to college drummed into me at an early age. In raising two sons, my wife and I did much the same – making college an important aspiration and setting aside savings to make it a reality. Yet, as much as going to college is a key part of the American Dream, it’s certainly not inevitable or easy. And as anyone who has kids in college knows, it’s a major investment in the future.

What strikes me more as I get older is that, in a nation of immigrants and people seeking to climb the ladder of opportunity, most of us have a story from the present or not too distant past about that person (or scholarship, or philanthropist) who made college a reality for someone important in their lives. For me, it’s the story of two grandfathers growing up in different parts of the world, but whose stories have an uncanny similarity.

My maternal grandfather, Curtis Byrd, grew up in Live Oak, Florida. Raised by a single mom who had to take in boarders to make ends meet, Curtis would have had no chance at attending college had it not been for a local businessman who took an interest in the young man. In a letter dated April 24, 1924, Mr. Hillman, then the vice president of First National Bank in Live Oak writes, “If you need more money to finish your term of school, you may draw on me for the amount.”

At the same time halfway around the world, Albert Rist, my paternal grandfather, was the youngest child in a large peasant farming family in southern Germany. In Albert’s case, it was the local parish priest who took an interest in him and offered to pay, first, the costs of attending the Gymnasium (a German academic high school) in a nearby village and then later college in Tübingen. During college, when my grandfather confessed to the priest that he was really more interested in math than theology, the priest urged him to finish anyway and continued to cover his costs.

Both of these men became the first in their families to graduate from college, and for both, post-secondary education changed the trajectories of their lives and the lives of their descendants. Who is the one person that made college possible in your family? And whom will you help to reach their higher education dreams?

Homebuyer Education is Critical, Especially in Rural Communities

By Erica Bradley, Guest Contributor on 04/29/2013 @ 01:00 PM

Tags: Housing and Homeownership

Erica Bradley works with the NeighborWorks America Rural Initiative, based in Boston. NeighborWorks America is a national intermediary with a network of 235 organizations serving communities across the country, including approximately 100 rural organizations.

For years, community development professionals were advocates for financial education. Not many lenders, and certainly not customers, took financial education seriously, until the housing bubble burst in 2008. In rural markets, homebuyers typically do not have the same access to services, like homebuyer education. For many rural organizations, expanding their services to include online financial education courses has allowed them to reach more customers.

Tammy Hyman, Homeownership Program Administrator at PathStone, always knew how important homeownership counseling is. PathStone, she said, had offered it since the late ‘90’s. “If they would have done (homeownership counseling) back then, we wouldn’t be having these issues now,” she said of the lenders.

PathStone, which is headquartered in Rochester, serves New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and parts of Puerto Rico. Many of the markets they serve are rural, and homeownership counseling is offered in Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania.

Hyman said clients have the option of taking an in-person training, which consists of an eight-hour course, or they can take an online course from eHome America. eHome America is a certified provider of online homebuyer education.

For the in-person class, the requirement is an eight- to ten-hour day. Hyman said she tries to include guest speakers, such as real estate agents or lenders. The course is held every other month or sometimes quarterly, depending on the demand for it. Hyman estimates there are 8-18 students in each class.

If the client chooses to take the online course, Hyman said, a staff person schedules a one-on-one call to discuss the course material and answer any questions the client has. Hyman said the benefit to the eHome course is it allows people to take the course at a convenient time for them.

Like PathStone, NHS of Richland County also offers an in-person homebuyer education course as well as the eHome course. NHS of Richland County covers several counties in Southwest Wisconsin, including an area where homebuyer education was not offered.

Linda Smith, NHS of Richland County Homeownership Center Coordinator, said they offer in-person courses, and they attempted to offer distance learning classes. The distance courses were broadcast from the main Richland Center site to remote sites, typically high school classrooms, in neighboring counties. Smith said because broadcasting the course was too staff-intensive, and there were technology problems, the remote course was cancelled. They are now using eHome America for their customers who cannot attend the course in Richland Center, which has gotten a great response. “eHome, because we are rural, is a good fit. It fits the needs for many of our households, especially the younger households who cannot attend classes at night or on the weekends,” she said.

Like PathStone, NHS requires customers who have taken the eHome course to have a phone conference with a staff person.

Gary Throckmorton, eHome Senior Executive Vice President, said eHome’s model is a network of local agencies. “We want the customer to be connected to a local agency. Follow-up is key,” he said. eHome has had steady growth, he said, and approximately 250 agencies are registered with over 36,000 clients served since 2009. Throckmorton expects growth to continue, especially since online education has become more accepted. eHome is currently offered in English and Spanish, but Throckmorton said adding additional languages would be considered if there was a demand.

eHome America was started in May 2009 by Community Ventures Corporation (CVC), a Kentucky-based non-profit. It is endorsed by NeighborWorks America.

Asset-Building News Roundup - April 26, 2013

By Veronica Weis on 04/26/2013 @ 05:00 PM

Tags: Recommended Reading

Events

For those looking for an Asset Building 101 webinar, register today for "What is Asset Building?" It's being offered on two dates, April 25 & 29, and will share information such as asset-building tools and resources for programs and clients, information about assets as a way to build financial stability for low-income communities of color and more.

What's it like to live on $1.50 a day? Join the Live Below the Line challenge and try it for five days. The initiative is meant to simulate what it’s like for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live in extreme poverty.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) is hosting an event, "Improving Americans' Financial Capability: Early Lessons and Emerging Innovations for Changing Consumer Behavior" this upcoming Tuesday on Capitol Hill. There's a great list of speakers so make sure you drop by. For more information, click here.

News

Last week, Hawai`i Governor Abercrombie signed HB 868 into law, eliminating the asset test in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, making Hawai`i the seventh state to do so. To read more about this positive development, check out an earlier blog post.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a new white paper examining payday and deposit advance loans. This study is more comprehensive than almost any other study ever conducted, since the CFPB was able to acquire data on millions of borrowers directly from banks and small dollar lenders. For a full summary and key findings, click here.

From the Assets & Opportunity Network

The Illinois Asset Building Group recently published a blog post that argues that while our student loan system is wrought with deep problems, there are options to allow students to borrow at lower rates and payback their loans easier and safer.

Hawaii Becomes the Seventh State to Eliminate TANF Asset Test

By Ethan Geiling on 04/26/2013 @ 10:00 AM

Tags: Assets & Opportunity Initiative

Last week, Hawai`i Governor Abercrombie signed HB 868 into law, eliminating the asset test in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, making Hawai`i the seventh state to do so.

This victory was not easily won. It took years of hard work by assets advocates, service providers, researchers, and policymakers across the state. The idea of lifting asset limits came from a 2008 Hawai`i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development (HACBED) report, co-authored by CFED, which laid out a policy roadmap for helping families build economic security. The report argued that asset limits are counterproductive and force Hawai`i’s most vulnerable families to sacrifice longer-term savings in exchange for short-term assistance from public benefit programs.

Soon after the policy roadmap was released, policymakers created a state task force to explore strategies to help Hawai`i families climb the economic ladder. The task force, which was staffed by HACBED, took on three issues: asset limits, financial education and children’s savings accounts. The final recommendations from the task force spurred state policymakers to take action. Advocates worked with policymakers to introduce asset limit bills in 2011 and 2012. Although these bills didn’t pass immediately, they helped policymakers further understand the issues with asset limits. Ultimately, the legislature asked the State Department of Human Services to conduct a study examining the potential impact of eliminating the TANF asset test. The study recommended eliminating the asset test, which provided the final push the legislature needed to take the 2013 legislation across the finish line.

Organizations that submitted testimony in support of the legislation, included:

• Patricia McManaman, Director, Department of Human Services
• Auli’i George, Office of Hawaiian Affairs
• Mila Kaahanui, Executive Director, Office of Community Services
• Brent Kakesako, Hawai'i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development
• Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women
• Jeanne Y. Ohta, Co-Chair, Women’s Caucus Democratic Party of Hawaii
• Teresa Bill, Univ. Hawai’i Bridge to Hope Coordinator
• Laurie A. Temple, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii
• Trisha Kajimura, Social Policy Director, Catholic Charities Hawaii
• Laura Smith and Scott Fuji, Goodwill Industries of Hawaii, Inc
• Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice
• Nalani Fujimori Kaina, Legal Aid Society of Hawaii
• Ann Freed, Hawaii Women’s Coalition
• Betty Sestak, AAUW-Windward
• Robert Scott Wall, Community Alliance for Mental Health

Hawaii is the seventh state to eliminate the asset test in TANF. The other six states to eliminate the test are Colorado (2011), Maryland (2010), Alabama (2009), Louisiana (2009), Virginia (2003), Ohio (1997). Click here to learn more about asset limits in public benefit programs.

You Might Also Like...

• 2013 Action to Eliminate Asset Limits
• State Policymaker Champions Asset Agenda

CFPB Releases New Payday Research

By Ethan Geiling and Katherine Lucas McKay on 04/25/2013 @ 12:00 PM

Tags: Assets & Opportunity Initiative, Federal Policy

Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a new white paper examining payday and deposit advance loans. The paper found that most borrowers are not using payday loans for short-term needs (as the payday industry often claims), but instead are repeatedly rolling over loans and taking out additional loans. As a result, borrowers often become stuck in an expensive and financially disastrous cycle of debt. The CFPB found that nearly half of payday borrowers have more than 10 loans a year, while 14 percent undertook 20 or more transactions annually.

This study is more comprehensive than almost any other study ever conducted, since the CFPB was able to acquire data on millions of borrowers directly from banks and small dollar lenders.

In a press release, CFPB Directory Richard Cordray explained: “This comprehensive study shows that payday and deposit advance loans put many consumers at risk of turning what is supposed to be a short-term, emergency loan into a long-term, expensive debt burden. For too many consumers, payday and deposit advance loans are debt traps that cause them to be living their lives off money borrowed at huge interest rates.”

The paper indicates that the Bureau is very concerned with current industry practices. The Bureau plans to conduct additional research and analysis, looking at online payday lending, the effectiveness of state restrictions on payday lending, and consumers’ motivations for borrowing. The report concludes that consumers need additional protections in this market and that the Bureau intends to use its authority to implement new protections once its research is complete. Even though, by law, the CFPB cannot set rate interest rate caps (the gold standard policy), there is much the Bureau still can do to protect consumers.

The Bureau’s interest in investigating payday borrowers’ experiences provides an important opportunity for asset builders to bring attention to the financial instability that results when predatory loans lead consumers into cycles of debt. This opportunity comes as asset-building advocates have worked for years to implement better consumer protections at the state and local levels. In fact, Twenty-five states currently have pending legislation addressing predatory small dollar lending. And the Assets & Opportunity Network recently released a 2013 Network Federal Policy Agenda, outlining the key policy issues that are most important to Network members. The number one issue on the agenda is educating the CFPB on predatory small dollar lending and other consumer issues. A few weeks ago, Network members weighed in with their recommendations on how the CFPB could curb predatory lending, which will become the basis for a statement and comments to the CFPB in the coming weeks.

Click here to read the full CFPB paper. Other key findings from the report are below.

Key Findings: Payday and Deposit Advance Loans Can Become Debt Traps for Consumers

The report found many consumers repeatedly roll over their payday and deposit advance loans or take out additional loans; often a short time after the previous one was repaid. This means that a sizable share of consumers end up in cycles of repeated borrowing and incur significant costs over time. The study also confirmed that these loans are quite expensive and not suitable for sustained use. Specifically, the study found limited underwriting and the single payment structure of the loans may contribute to trapping consumers in debt.

Loose Lending: Lenders often do not take a borrower’s ability to repay into consideration when making a loan. Instead, they may rely on ensuring they are one of the first in line to be repaid from a borrower’s income. For the consumer, this means there may not be sufficient funds after paying off the loan for expenses such as for their rent or groceries – leading them to return to the bank or payday lender for more money.

• Payday: Eligibility to qualify for a payday loan usually requires proper identification, proof of income, and a personal checking account. No collateral is held for the loan, although the borrower does provide the lender with a personal check or authorization to debit her checking account for repayment. Credit score and financial obligations are generally not taken in to account.
• Deposit Advance: Depository institutions have various eligibility rules for their customers, who generally already have checking accounts with them. The borrower authorizes the bank to claim repayment as soon as the next qualifying electronic deposit is received. Typically, though, a customer’s ability to repay the loan outside of other debts and ordinary living expenses is not taken into account.

Risky Loan Structures: The risk posed by the loose underwriting is compounded by some of the features of payday and deposit advance loans, particularly the rapid repayment structure. Paying back a lump sum when a consumer’s next paycheck or other deposit arrives can be difficult for an already cash-strapped consumer, leading them to take out another loan.

• Payday: Payday loans typically must be repaid in full when the borrower’s next paycheck or other income is due. The report finds the median loan term to be just 14 days.
• Deposit Advance: There is not a fixed due date with a deposit advance. Instead, the bank will repay itself from the next qualifying electronic deposit into the borrower’s account. The report finds that deposit advance “episodes,” which may include multiple advances, have a median duration of 12 days.

High Costs: Both payday loans and deposit advances are designed for short-term use and can have very high costs. These high costs can add up – on top of the already existing loans that a consumer is taking on.

• Payday: Fees for storefront payday loans generally range from $10-$20 per $100 borrowed. For the typical loan of $350, for example, the median $15 fee per $100 would mean that the borrower must come up with more than $400 in just two weeks. A loan outstanding for two weeks with a $15 fee per $100 has an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 391 percent.
• Deposit Advance: Fees generally are about $10 per $100 borrowed. For a deposit advance with a $10 fee per $100 borrowed on a 12-day loan, for example, the APR would be 304 percent.

Sustained Use: The loose underwriting, the rapid repayment requirement, and the high costs all may contribute to turning a short-term loan into a very expensive, long-term loan. For consumers, it is unclear whether they fully appreciate the risk that they may end up using these products much longer than the original term. Or, that they may end up paying fees that equal or exceed the amount they borrowed, leading them into a revolving door of debt.

• Payday: For payday borrowers, nearly half have more than 10 transactions a year, while 14 percent undertook 20 or more transactions annually. Payday borrowers are indebted a median of 55 percent (or 199 days) of the year. For the majority of payday borrowers, new loans are most frequently taken on the same day a previous loan is closed, or shortly thereafter.
• Deposit Advance: More than half of all users borrow more than $3,000 per year while 14 percent borrow more than $9,000 per year. These borrowers typically have an outstanding balance at least 9 months of the year and typically are indebted more than 40 percent of the year. And while these products are sometimes described as a way to avoid the high cost of overdraft fees, 65 percent of deposit advance users incur such fees. The heaviest deposit advance borrowers accrue the most overdraft fees.