Indepth analysis of persistant problems in the field of community development. Woodstock's research reports contribute to the body of knowledge used by policymakers and community development practitioners.
California Reinvestment Coalition, Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, Empire Justice Center, Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, Neighborhood Eonomic Development Advocacy Project, Ohio Fair Lending Coalition, and Woodstock Institute
Foreclosures spiked in the last
quarter of 2007 in nearly every community in the Chicago region, based on foreclosure filings
analyzed by Woodstock Institute. This report also found that foreclosure
filings have increased in suburban areas that have not traditionally been
associated with high foreclosure levels.
This report provides a method for estimating the loan
terms and conditions, default conditions, automobile characteristics, and
borrower demographics of title loans in Illinois
based on Cook County
court cases filed against borrowers in default during 2005. It identifies key
information on the title loan industry necessary to inform the public debate on
how to best apply nationally recognized small loan consumer protections to the Illinois
title loan industry.
This paper takes advantage of an unusually detailed family and youth survey conducted by the Institute for the Study of Work and Society (IETS) in Rio de Janeiro in the low-income community of Caju close to downtown Rio. It describes the weak educational background of Caju youth and some of the reasons for that weakness. The results emphasize the precarious nature of low-income youth’s educational achievements and their attachment to the job market. They also demonstrate the wide variance in youth characteristics even in a single low-income neighborhood.
The report documents the decline in personal savings rates while explaining the recent saving incentive for lower-income people created by the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006. While the credit is a modest step in the right direction for providing lower-income people the level of incentives currently provided to middle- and upper-income people, the report recommends that it be made refundable to expand its benefits to all income qualified tax payers.
