Sustainability and the City: New Kensington CDC's Sustainable 19125 Initiative

New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), an organization long dedicated to revitalizing the East Kensington, Fishtown, and Port Richmond neighborhoods of Philadelphia, launched an urban sustainability initiative in 2009 called "Sustainable 19125." The initiative's goal is to make the 19125 ZIP code the most sustainable ZIP code in the city

The Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative Housing Market Study

The Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative is a collaborative effort between the City of Syracuse, local and national non-profit organizations, and private sector leaders. This partnership was created in response to an urgent challenge issued by Congressman James Walsh (R-Syracuse) in the summer of 1999 -- a challenge to revitalize distressed neighborhoods in Syracuse and reclaim those of the city's 1,031 vacant buildings that are having the greatest blighting impact on these neighborhoods. The Initiative is a city-wide effort, but is focused on revitalizing seven central-city neighborhoods that have suffered a wave of disinvestment and bear much of the burden of the city's abandoned housing stock.Viable strategies to address the problem of neighborhood decline in Syracuse must reflect an understanding of local housing market dynamics. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation undertook this market study to help identify the challenges and opportunities that distressed neighborhoods face in today's housing market, and to suggest a course of action that makes sense given current housing market conditions. To accomplish these goals, the study utilized an extensive mix of secondary data sources, as well as primary data generated through a series of interviews with local informants and a survey of over 6,000 households in seven central city neighborhoods that the City of Syracuse has designated as "revitalization areas" for the Neighborhood Initiative

Scaling U.S. Community Investing: The Investor Product Interface

"Community investing" is investment that seeks to deliver social benefits to low-income or marginalized communities while also generating a financial return. This report provides an overview of the U.S. Community Investing (USCI) field: the types of intermediary organizations raising investments and deploying them in underserved communities, the range of investment products that are available, and the types of investors active in the space. In so doing, this study surfaces several key barriers and opportunities for scaling private investment in the USCI space

Impacts of Homeownership Education and Counseling on Homebuyer Purchasing Power: Summary of Findings

In addition to reducing defaults and foreclosures, homeownership education and counseling is often claimed to help families achieve homeownership in the first place by helping them to navigate the homebuying process, improve their credit, and access favorable financing products. This study tests an approach to quantifying this benefit by estimating the amount of increased purchasing power that results from homeownership education and counseling. While the results are preliminary, they provide early suggestive evidence that high-performing homeownership education and counseling agencies may provide quantifiable benefits that exceed their costs of assistance. The study also makes recommendations for how data could be collected on a more systematic basis to track and assess these benefits

Clean Energy Project Development for Low-Income Communities: Strengthening the Ecosystem for Delivering Solar Energy and Deep Efficiency Retrofits

Scaling clean energy in low-income communities through solar and deep efficiency retrofits presents financing challenges, but that is only part of the problem. Drawing on research conducted by the Carsey School’s Center for Impact Finance, this white paper outlines a road map depicting the ecosystem needed to deliver clean energy projects to underserved communities. In a “tour” through this ecosystem, author Eric Hangen reviews examples of the work different organizations are doing in each of its niches, as well as which niches seem to be richly popu­lated and which niches need more support and invest­ment. Main conclusions from the tour are that: More capacity-building funding and support is needed at the grassroots level of the ecosystem. There are many community lenders who are well-positioned to finance clean energy projects, whose capacities could be unlocked by provid­ing lending operating platforms. There are many opportunities to engage new investors to provide capital for clean energy proj­ect finance in low-income communities, but they cannot be easily realized without scaling up the pipeline of investable projects. The key to building a thriving ecosystem is to connect the various sectors, roles, or niches across their boundaries. Funders and policymakers need to think more holistically about building the ecosystem required to identify, develop, and finance impactful and investable projects

United Villages: A Case Study on Building Materials Reuse in Portland, Oregon

In 2003, building-related construction and demolition (C&D) debris totaled more than 164 million tons a year, up from 136 million tons a year in 1993.1 The largest share of this debris comes from building demolitions (53%), followed by building remodeling and renovation (38%) and finally construction (9%).2 Together, it comprises nearly 40 percent of the combined C&D and municipal solid waste stream.3 Landfilling this material incurs a significant economic cost. In 2004, the national average landfill tipping fee was $35 per ton,4 putting the national bill for landfilling construction and demolition debris at something on the order of$5.7 billion.Moreover, landfilling this debris also generates a considerable environmental cost. Landfill space is used up and fossil fuels are expended to transport and store debris; fossil fuels are used, natural resources depleted, and toxins generated in the production and transport of replacement materials. An environmental cost calculator prepared by the Deconstruction Institute and the University of Florida provides some examples:5Some 33 million tons of wood-related construction and demolition debris are buried each year in the US, releasing about 5 million tons of carbon equivalent in the form of methane gas. These greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to the annual emissions of 3.7 million cars.The average (2,000 square foot) American home, if demolished, would produce 10,000 cubic feet of debris. Recycling the steel and plastics in it would save almost 3,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. Salvaging the wood could yield 6,000 board feet of reusable lumber - equivalent to saving 33 mature trees.The building materials in the average American home contain about 892 million Btu of embodied energy -- the total amount of energy used to produce, transport and assemble the materials into a home. This amount is equivalent to 7,826 gallons of gasoline. Reusing or recycling these materials would recapture much of this embodied energy rather than wasting it.One year of construction and demolition debris is enough to build a wall 30 feet high and 30 feet thick around the entire coast of the continental United States (4,993 miles long).Lastly, landfilling this debris represents an opportunity cost for the many people and organizations that could have used the materials if they had been salvaged

Carsey Perspectives: Innovative Financing for Community Businesses

In this perspectives brief, author Eric Hangen examines two nonprofit “alternative business financiers”-- Vested for Growth and the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund -- who have been broadening the financing options available for community-based businesses. Early results from both initiatives suggest that both the borrowing businesses and community lenders can succeed with these financing strategies: businesses are getting flexible financing while maintaining control of the company, and community lenders are earning returns that help to sustain their operations

Advancing Decarbonization in Regulated Multifamily Affordable Housing: Key Federal Levers to Achieve Meaningful Change

Decarbonizing affordable rental housing is critical to mitigating climate change and meeting the Biden Administration’s target for a net-zero emissions national economy by 2050. It also offers numerous benefits, including energy cost savings, improved health and well-being, and economic opportunities. However, challenges related to upfront costs, tenant turnover, technical expertise, and policy support must be addressed to accelerate the market’s adoption of decarbonization. Collaboration between governments, policymakers, landlords, tenants, and industry experts is essential to overcome these challenges and achieve a sustainable and equitable future. We are faced with a historic moment: the Inflation Reduction Act has provided $27 billion to mobilize financing and leverage private capital for clean energy and climate projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing projects that benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities. This investment in climate change mitigation has given Federal agencies an unprecedented opportunity to create systems change at the Federal level. Now is the time to begin transforming the affordable housing market – and, ultimately, the built environment – to incorporate decarbonization as a standard business practice. The policy levers contained in this working paper outline a series of steps that can be taken to advance decarbonization today, create sustainable systems change, and climate align housing for our future

CDFIs Stepping into the Breach: An Impact Evaluation—Summary Report

This report summarizes research undertaken by the Carsey School of Public Policy to evaluate impacts of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund on CDFIs and of the CDFI industry on the people and communities it serves. In summary, we find a variety of evidence indicating that CDFIs are advancing the statutory purposes of the CDFI Fund to promote economic revitalization and community development through the provision of credit, capital and financial services to underserved populations and communities in the United State

CDFIs and Online Business Lending: A Review of Recent Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities

The report, authored by Jack Northrup, Eric Hangen, and Michael Swack, looks at some of the issues CDFIs face as the fintech industry (technology companies involved in lending) grows and begins to target markets served by CDFIs