Ownership & Assets

The tanking economy is putting local governments in a double bind. As the ranks of the poor and jobless swell, authorities have dwindling funds to help them. Incredibly, officials in San Francisco and other cities can't even prioritize who to help because they don't know who their poorest citizens are. The problem lies with an obsolete federal measure of poverty that will only make hard times harder in San Francisco until it's changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded just such a revolution in New York City, allowing officials to better direct their limited funds and energy.

The ASPIRE Act - Universal, lifelong savings accounts at birth

• The ASPIRE Act promotes lifetime savings, financial literacy, and opportunities for all young adults by establishing a progressively funded savings account for every child born in America.
• Each account receives $500 at birth.

Introduction/Background

In recent years, the role that savings and assets play in shaping people's lives has increasingly captured the attention of researchers, policy analysts and elected officials. Their interest in savings and building wealth has grown along with an increased awareness of specific policy tools and interventions, such as matched savings accounts available for lower-income workers.

The rental housing market in the United States is characterized by a fundamental disconnect between rents and household incomes. It has been this way for decades. Millions of Americans simply earn too little to afford to rent a decent home. To meet these families' basic needs for shelter, the federal government spends more than $25 billion each year to provide rental assistance to more than four million poor and near-poor households.

Please join us on January 13, 2009, for the sixth California Working Families Policy Summit, hosted by the California Center for Research on Women and Families for a stimulating day of discussion and debate about the needs and aspirations of California's working families.

As foreclosure rates continue to reach record highs here in the Washington region and across the country and the global economy reels, many Americans have begun to question whether expanding homeownership is a wise strategy. While there is plenty of blame to go around for this mess, the goal of expanding homeownership is still an important one and should not be sacrificed. It can be done responsibly and should remain a priority. In fact, one of the best examples of how it can be done is right here in the District.

With "green" on everyone's tongues, it was only a matter of time before the question of environmentally-friendly practices arose in microfinance.  Practitioners and microfinance partner groups have focused their efforts on asking questions about the impact of microfinance clients on the natural environment.  I, on the other hand, can't help but wonder if we should be asking what microfinance can do to protect the most vulnerable from environmental woes brought about by climate change.