Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/NoahSawyer

Supporters of urban revitalization have relied on community development corporations (CDCs) to carry a major share of the front-line burden. This research presents new evidence that these community-controlled, market-responsive organizations can indeed spark a chain reaction of investment. Advanced econometric analysis shows that CDC residential and commercial investments have led to increases in property values--the single-best measure of neighborhood improvement--as great as 69 percent higher than they would have been otherwise. To achieve these results, CDCs did more than just develop projects; they also brought business people, civic organizations, and public agencies into the neighborhood improvement process.

This brief examines the efficacy of providing housing mobility assistance to families with vouchers by examining the Housing Opportunity Program in Chicago. To help families move to opportunity neighborhoods, HOP provides housing search counseling and unit referrals, free credit reports and budget counseling, transportation to view units, expedited housing inspections, workshops on landlord-tenant law, and post-move support. The authors find that voucher holders who enroll in HOP and receive mobility services are significantly more likely to move to opportunity neighborhoods. Vulnerable households, large families, black households and public housing relocatees are less likely to move to opportunity neighborhoods. [View the corresponding press release]

Housing in the Nation's Capital 2004 is the third in a series of annual reports sponsored by the Fannie Mae Foundation about housing in the Washington region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. This year's report focuses on the challenges posed by the region's remarkable economic prosperity and highlights potential strategies for tackling the challenges this good fortune poses. It is our intention to provoke focused, sustained dialogue among our region's policy-makers, business representatives, community-based organizations, and advocates.

Millions of households conduct financial transactions without ever using mainstream financial services. Many of these consumers often rely on alternative financial service providers--check-cashing outlets, payday lenders, pawnshops, rent-to-own stores, and auto title lenders. These alternative, nonbank financial service providers often carry high costs, limiting low-income families' ability to accumulate assets and establish a credit history. This report investigates the location of three types of alternative providers--check-cashing outlets, payday lenders, and pawnshops--in eight diverse demographic and regulatory environments. For each site, the study presents a demographic profile of alternative provider neighborhoods as well as areas that contain geographic "clusters" of alternative providers. It also assesses whether the regulatory environment affects the number and location patterns of financial service providers.

The Washington region currently ranks fifth in the nation for traffic congestion, with area residents spending an average of 35 hours a year stuck in traffic. Local governments are considering a number of solutions to these problems including infrastructure improvements and changes to the public transportation fare system. As these decisions are made it is important to consider what we know about where people work and how they get to their jobs on a daily basis. This research note reviews some of the data on transportation to work in the Washington, DC metro area available in the 2000 census.

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