skip navigation

Thursday, March 18, 2010

[ – ] Text Size [ + ]  |  Print Page

Home > Community Development > Community Development Publications & Videos > Cascade > Archived Issues

Cascade

Archived Issues

No. 69, Fall 2008

Articles report on the FHA’s new refinancing options and use of the options in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware; the experience of a Pennsylvania home improvement loan program; payday lending alternative of Pennsylvania credit unions; a research study of subprime borrowers; servicer guidelines on foreclosures; and a Federal Reserve study on trends in electronic and check payments.

No. 68, Spring/Summer 2008

This issue highlights plenary and research sessions at Reinventing Older Communities: How Does Place Matter?, a national conference held March 26-28, 2008, in Philadelphia. Summarized are a keynote address from Bruce Katz, VP and director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program; an American mayors’ panel and a presentation from Valentino Castellani, former mayor of Turin, Italy; an address by Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania; sessions on philanthropy’s role in changing markets and the Federal Reserve System’s response to subprime mortgage challenges; and research sessions on schools and neighborhoods, uneven geographies of opportunity, social interactions and crime, neighborhoods and health, and patterns of segregation.

No. 67, Winter 2008

Community First Fund has grown from a local microbusiness lender to a regional lender with a diverse product line. Nonprofit Finance Fund provides nonprofits with business analysis services as well as loans, while The Progress Fund lends to tourist-related businesses and helps build tourism markets. Membership in a community development credit union appears to have a positive impact on members’ lives, a study shows. CDFIs are trying to keep pace with growing financing demands, according to the Opportunity Finance Network. The Reinvestment Fund has developed a web-based data analysis and mapping tool that is being used by a statewide housing agency and major foundation.

No. 66, Fall 2007

Highlights include articles that cover the following: servicers expand activities in outreach and loss mitigation; servicers provide single points of contact to nonprofits; a national hotline refers homeowners to five nonprofit credit counseling agencies; credit counseling agencies reach no-contact homeowners; study probes what happens after subprime borrowers default; ACORN Housing seeks affordability standards in loan modifications; and state housing finance agencies debate refinance programs.

No. 65, Spring/Summer 2007

This issue covers neighborhood commercial corridor revitalization initiatives, an interview with a bank community development lender who has used new markets tax credits extensively, an interview with a developer who has specialized in mixed-use adaptive reuse in eastern U.S. cities, a study on whether subsidized housing investment improves a neighborhood, and a profile of a nonprofit that teaches self-sufficiency as it provides housing.

No. 64, Winter 2007: Financial Literacy

This issue, which focuses on financial literacy, includes articles on the Federal Reserve System's Survey of Consumer Finances; a Delaware program providing adult classes on a wide range of financial subjects; bank savings programs for young people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware; the importance of collaboration in financial education; a Bank of America savings program; an IRS change enabling taxpayers to allocate refunds to up to three accounts; a motivational program on both health and personal finance; and credit counseling for small business owners.

No. 63, Fall 2006

This issue includes analysis and insight of revitalization efforts in the downtown and riverfront areas of Wilmington, DE; the use of new markets tax credits in two developments in downtown Trenton, NJ (one of which involved the relocation of Wachovia Bank’s regional headquarters); a Wilmington program that is encouraging owners to rehabilitate or sell vacant properties; and a column on measuring the impact of the community development block grant program.

No. 62, Summer 2006

This issue spotlights bank branches opened in three low-income communities in Pennsylvania; a venture capital firm's investments in rural and other areas; angel investors; a revised state-tax program in Pennsylvania that encourages partnerships between corporations and community-based organizations; asset-building experiments involving employers and financial education; public-policy implications of Hurricane Katrina; and a new program for Pennsylvania nonprofits to preserve rental housing.

No. 61, Spring 2006

This issue contains a range of perspectives on asset building by low- and moderate-income residents. An assistant vice president from H&R Block outlines some of the large-scale experiments the company has conducted in asset building, and the D2D Fund’s executive director describes a forthcoming IRS change that will allow direct deposit into more than one account (refund splitting). Other articles discuss the experience of three youth IDA programs, a partnership between Open Hearth and Susquehanna Patriot Bank for moderate-income families, employer-assisted housing and the Home∙Buy∙Now program in Philadelphia, asset building by Latino families, financial and economic education provided through high schools, and The Benefit Bank.

No. 60, Winter 2005

This issue includes an analysis of urban real estate markets and the difficulty of developing needed mixed-use urban properties, plus articles on a community foundation’s work with the business sector to create a regional economic development strategy, a change of emphasis in Fannie Mae’s American Communities Fund®, a national campaign to help cities tackle vacant properties, a 30-year-old joint agreement of three Bucks County, PA, townships on land-use planning and zoning, the ongoing effort of cities to modernize zoning and land-use regulations, research on whether urban success stories are based on perception or reality, and three new Community Affairs products.

No. 59, Fall 2005

This issue focuses on a cross-section of seven Third District banks that have received outstanding CRA ratings, the Community Lenders Community Development Corporation (a bank consortium that finances rental housing), CRA amendments, and a PHFA web tool to help consumers find affordable-housing units.

No. 58, Summer 2005

Articles discuss a Trenton CDC’s regional focus; NJ regional contribution agreements; a pro-integration effort in Pennsauken, NJ; perspectives on regional equity from the William Penn Foundation, Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, and PolicyLink; and Marty Smith’s analysis of a paper on the differences of per capita personal income among states.

No. 57, Spring 2005

Articles report on the conversion of a coal and iron complex to a recreational park in Germany; Ridgway, PA, revitalization; PA Banking Department’s responses to high foreclosure rate; Wachovia Regional Foundation’s funding priorities; SBA’s revision of 504 and 7(a) programs; CRA and racial housing patterns (Spotlight on Research); and nonprofit offering that receives Standard & Poor's AAA rating.

No. 56, Winter 2004

Articles discuss extensive foreclosures in Monroe County, PA and responses of Pennsylvania agencies; a Chicago nonprofit's work with subprime-loan servicers on foreclosures; record-high subprime lending; an FHA study on foreclosures; PHFA initiatives spur mixed-income housing and mixed-use financing; bank home improvement loans to Philadelphia residents with impaired credit; a nonprofit small-business lender's experience in southern New Jersey; The Enterprise Center changes minority-business focus; and Beech Interplex's work near Temple University.

No. 55, Summer/Fall 2004

This issue provides two contrasting viewpoints on New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing rules, a remembrance of Vera Bowders, and articles on the role of an arts district in revitalizing the downtown of Millville, NJ, the Nehemiah Gateway CDC (a church-based organization in Wilmington, DE), steps by PNC Bank, Delaware to expedite the opening of savings accounts, New Markets Tax Credit allocations in the Third Federal Reserve District, the appointment of Sandra F. Braunstein as director of the division of consumer and community affairs of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and a column by Marvin M. Smith, Ph.D. on subprime and predatory lending.

No. 54, Spring 2004

Articles describe changes in statistical definitions from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, a transit-oriented housing development strategy of Moorestown Ecumenical Neighborhood Development, Inc., the University of Pennsylvania's role as investor and developer in its adjacent neighborhood, a national conference held in January 2004 on reinventing America's older communities, PNC Bank's development bank, and a new column written by Marvin M. Smith, Ph.D., on economic development incentives.

No. 53, Winter 2003 (PDF file, 2.9 MB)

A special issue on "smart growth" and rebuilding older communities with articles containing the perspectives of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Smart Growth America, The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, The Reinvestment Fund, and William Penn Foundation. Also includes a summary of an article written by Bob Inman, the Mellon Professor of Finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and an article about the Allegheny West Foundation's efforts in brownfields redevelopment.

No. 52, Summer/Fall 2003 (PDF file, 1.13 MB)

Contains articles on the New markets tax credit program; New Jersey Home Ownership Security Act of 2003, which concerns predatory lending; New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance's strategy on predatory lending; New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's Small Rental Project Preservation Loan Program; Community Affairs Department's new economic education program; Commerce Bank financial-education program targeting K-12 students; Ways to Work car loan program in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania; and West End Neighborhood House's security-deposit loan program for renters.

No. 51, Spring 2003 (PDF file, 712 KB)

No. 50, Winter 2002 (PDF, 1 MB)

No. 49, Summer/Fall 2002 (PDF, 1.6 MB)

No. 48, Spring 2002 (PDF, 4.7 MB)

No. 47, Winter 2001 (PDF, 2.7 MB)

No. 46, Summer/Fall 2001 (PDF, 5.6 MB)

No. 45, Spring 2001 (PDF, 1.7 MB)

No. 44, Winter 2000 (PDF, 3.7, MB)

No. 43, Summer/Fall 2000 (PDF, 4 MB)

No. 42, Spring 2000 (PDF, 2.8 MB)

No. 41, Winter 1999 (PDF, 2.4 MB)

No. 40, Summer/Fall 1999 (PDF, 1 MB)

No. 39, Spring 1999 (PDF, 1.2 MB)