Between 1990 and 1996 there was a large increase in the number of lower-income home buyers in the Chicago region. This good news is tempered by the facts of where these households were able to purchase homes. Most of them bought in Chicago and suburban Cook County. Unless lower-income buyers have a choice of homes throughout the six-county region, they will not gain the full benefits of homeownership.

This Alert is a call to action for community organizations and others concerned about the impact of electronic funds transfer (EFT) on low-income households. It provides a summary of regulations proposed by the Treasury Department and recommendations on how they can be improved. An analysis of electronic benefits transfer (EBT) in Illinois demonstrates why currency exchanges should be prohibited from serving as EFT access points.

Daniel Immergluck

An analysis of the long-awaited small business loan data released by federal bank regulators shows lower-income census tracts in Chicago area receive fewer loans per business than upper-income areas.

Analyzes the diverse impacts and contributions of eight community development credit unions (CDCUs) in different economic, institutional, geographic, and demographic settings. It is designed to help CDCUs develop and implement new community development programs and form collaborations with community organizations, intermediaries, trade associations, and banks.

This report analyzes data on 504 lending for the entire nation and for the Chicago metropolitan area to discern whether this SBA program is serving sound economic development purposes.

Describes the benefits of collaboration between CDFIs and mainstream financial institutions; regulatory and legislative opportunities for building and strengthening such partnerships, and an analysis of the types of relationships that have evolved in recent years. Detailed case studies describe how creative partnerships have developed between a variety of CDFIs and conventional lenders.

This study finds that minorities and lower-income people who use these "fringe banks" pay higher prices for basic financial services. In addition to demonstrating the high costs charged by CEs, this Alert makes recommendations aimed at encouraging greater use of banks by these CE users, at reducing excessive fees charged by CEs, and at increasing consumer awareness of the relative costs of financial services.

Analyzes job patterns in the Chicago Empowerment Zone (EZ), examining demographics of those who work in the EZ, the number of EZ jobs held by EZ residents, and the work locations of EZ residents. The report provides examples of efforts in Chicago and around the country aimed at linking neighborhood residents to nearby jobs and calls for increased attention to the barriers between jobs and residents in low-income urban areas.

Finds that lending for home purchases throughout the Chicago area has increased dramatically in recent years, with loan volume up by 50 percent from 1990 to 1994. Loans to low- and moderate-income individuals increased at even higher rates than overall loans, increasingby 85 percent over the same period.