Research & Reports Stories | Community Development Digest

Housing Assistance Council Analyzes Multifamily Loan Portfolio Data

HAC’s analysis shows that there were about 13,830 Section 515 properties with over 416,000 rental units during the study period. Nearly two-thirds of the households in these properties receive USDA Rental Assistance. The average tenant household had an income of about $13,600.

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SBA’s Office of Advocacy Reviews Senior Entrepreneurship

The report finds self-employment is increasing among seniors. The percentage of individuals age 62 and over who were self-employed increased from 4.2 percent in 1988 to 5.4 percent in 2015.

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Advocacy Group Details Social Security's Economic Impact on U.S. Communities

Ever wonder how Social Security affects the U.S. economy? What with all the dire warnings about the future of what is clearly the nation's most popular entitlement program, Social Security’s economic contributions to communities, counties, and states continue to be misunderstood and often ignored in Washington’s fiscal debates. The outspoken National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, one of Washington's squeakiest wheels, hopes to change that. It has released a new online report that provides a detailed look at the significant economic impact generated by Social Security benefits.

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Managers' Group Makes the Connection Between Health and Communities

Healthy communities don’t just happen. They are created by a multitude of social, economic, environmental, and behavioral factors. And local governments play a critical role in shaping a community’s public health, according to a new report released by ICMA, the International City/County Management Association.

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Study: Affordable Housing Policies Did Not Lead to Financial Crisis

While many factors contributed to the financial crisis of 2008, new research from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison debunks the narrative that affordable housing policies were an underlying cause.

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Trade Group’s Report Examines Assisted Living Building Requirements

The analysis is limited to identifying basic state licensing agency regulations for designing and building an assisted living community, and how those criteria correlate or conflict with separate state building and life safety code requirements.

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Research Examines Effects of Subsidized- and Market-Rate Housing

Research from the University of California-Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project shows that subsidized housing has more than double the impact of market-rate units in terms of alleviating displacement pressure.

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Research Ties Community Development, Housing to Health Outcomes

A newly published issue brief from the Pew Charitable Trusts introduces housing professionals and policymakers to the concept of health impact assessments (HIAs) and explains how such studies can improve decisions about projects, policies, and programs in the areas of housing and community development. The brief draws upon findings from a review -- conducted by the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) in consultation with the Health Impact Project and the National Housing Conference -- of 40 HIA reports on housing-related programs, projects, and policy decisions conducted in the United States between 2002 and 2013.

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Survey Shows Opportunity for Mobile Economic Empowerment

A new nationwide poll of African-Americans identifies a significant gap between the community’s enthusiastic embrace of mobile technology as consumers and their awareness of mobile technology as a tool for economic empowerment. Most important, the poll is among the first in the nation to ask respondents to help identify concrete solutions to unlock opportunities for full participation in our nation’s mobile-fueled innovation economy.

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Philadelphia Study Dissects Impact of Gentrification

A new study from The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia draws on a unique, large-scale consumer credit database to examine the mobility patterns of residents in gentrifying neighborhoods in the city of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2014.

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