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Housing Funding in Philadelphia: Evaluating the Impact of Public Spending

 
 

Early Learning Supply & Demand in the District of Columbia (Series)

 
 

Limited Supermarket Access Analysis

 
 

Estimating Changes in the Supply of and Demand for Child Care in Philadelphia (Series)

 
 

Eviction Diversion in Philadelphia: Evaluation of Efforts to Reduce Eviction Filings in Two Program Phases

 
 

Housing Funding in Philadelphia: The Sources and Uses of Public Dollars

Philadelphia, like many large cities, directs a considerable amount of money each year to meet its residents’ needs for quality affordable housing and related services. Over three recent fiscal years (2021-2023), local public sector entities expended nearly $2.3 billion on housing.

 
 

Mortgage Lending in Philadelphia: Key Take-Aways from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Release

 
 

Implementing Right to Counsel in Philadelphia: An Evaluation of the Program’s 2022 Rollout

 
 

Disparities in Appraised Values and Contract Sales Prices in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area

 
 

The Impact of Eviction and Cultural Engagement on Social Wellbeing: An Application of Ecometrics in Philadelphia

Over the past quarter century, social scientists have taken a renewed interest in neighborhood ecology. The term ecometrics describes the empirical investigation of neighborhood effects. We take an “ecometric” approach to examine two contemporary phenomena—involuntary residential movement (household eviction) and the concentration of cultural assets within neighborhoods—to examine how they might influence individual dimensions of social wellbeing and patterns of social wellbeing across Philadelphia.

 
 

Mortgage Lending in Philadelphia: Key Take-Aways from the 2021 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Release

 
 

Child Care Access in Metro Atlanta

 
 

Investor Home Purchases and the
Rising Threat to Owners and Renters: Tales from 3 Cities

 
 

Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force Report and Recommendations

 
 

Supporting Locally Driven Community Development: The Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund

 
 

Barriers to Homeownership

 
 

Understanding Infant and Toddler Care in Philadelphia: Capacity, Shortages, and Barriers

 
 

Capitalizing Child Care: The National Landscape of Grants, Loans, and Community Development Capital in Early Childhood Education & Child Care Finance Map

 
 

Evidence-Based Policy Making

An analysis of six strategies to stabilize neighborhoods, this report examines policy interventions used to stabilize or revitalize housing markets in low- and middle-income neighborhoods.

 
 

Emergency Response: An overview of the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for the Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE) program

March 2020 was a precarious time for childcare businesses in Pennsylvania and across the US. In response to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus. This report provides an overview of the Philadelphia Emergency Fund for the Stabilization of Early Education (PEFSEE) program and its accomplishments to-date. The report highlights how emergency resources administered through PEFSEE helped stabilize provider.

 
 

Mortgage Lending in Philadelphia Key Take-Aways from the 2020 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Release

The release of 2020 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data provide an opportunity to look at the local mortgage lending environment – trends in loan volume, the kinds of loans being made, where loans are made, how efficiently different groups can access credit, and how key features of originated mortgages vary across different racial groups in Philadelphia.

 
 

New Orleans Market Assessment – Analysis of Trends and Conditions

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the affordable housing landscape in New Orleans, and how can policymakers respond? This  report by Reinvestment Fund reviews demographic, economic, and housing market data prior to and immediately following the start of the pandemic, as well as interviews with local experts and stakeholders. The report concludes with a set of geographically targeted policy recommendations.

 
 

Words from the Field: Practitioner Perspectives on Eviction Process Improvements in Philadelphia

Since April 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the evictions moratorium have drastically reduced Landlord-Tenant court activity, allowing Philadelphia renters to stay in their homes during a period when an eviction would subject them to risk of contracting and spreading the virus.

 
 

The Impact of COVID-19 on The Use of Child Care Works Subsidy in Philadelphia

This brief describes Child Care Works (CCW) usage across Philadelphia and the impact of COVID-19 on program participation.

 
 

An “All-Out” Effort to Achieve Desegregation and Equality of Opportunity: Assessment of Fair Housing 2.0

Fair housing law is an essential tool to achieving racial and economic integration and realizing the attendant benefits for all types of communities. This brief draws on structured interviews conducted by Reinvestment Fund and the University of Pennsylvania with former officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), local housing officials in New Orleans, Houston, Kansas City (MO), Indianapolis, and Philadelphia, and fair housing experts and advocates.

 
 

Debt Collection in Philadelphia

Reinvestment Fund conducted analysis of Philadelphia Municipal Court records for debt collection cases that were filed in Small Claims court between January 2016 and April 2020. In total, 90,809 case records were obtained for analysis.

 
 

Data-Driven Investments in Early Childhood Education are Making a Difference for Philadelphia Families, Small Businesses and Neighborhoods

Since 2014, Reinvestment Fund’s Fund for Quality (FFQ) and Early Childhood Education Loan Fund (ECE-LF) have been making investments to support the expansion of high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) opportunities throughout Philadelphia. From 2014 to 2019, the FFQ and ECE-LF have supported 51 projects at 46 unique centers, which have created or preserved 3,246 ECE high-quality seats across the city. These seats serve a diverse population of high-need families across the city.

 
 

Evictions in Philadelphia: Race (and Place) Matters

Reinvestment Fund’s research report provides new insight into how many Black and Hispanic renters in Philadelphia face an eviction filing compared to other racial and ethnic groups. While previous research has documented the persistent, statistically significant effect of Census tract-level racial composition on filing volume, this is the first look at the racial and ethnic characteristics of the universe of residential eviction defendants.

 
 

Residential Rental Property Owner Perspectives and Practices in Philadelphia: Evaluating Challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic

A research brief by Reinvestment Fund and the Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP) that examines the experiences and perspectives of residential rental property owners and managers in Philadelphia. The brief examines challenges that landlords faced—including how they dealt with evictions—prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; new or increased difficulties stemming from the pandemic; and landlords’ engagement with and attitudes towards programs aimed at stabilizing tenants in rental housing.

 
 

Getting Back to Care: Findings from a Philadelphia Survey on Restarting Early Childhood Education

Reinvestment Fund and its partners – the City of Philadelphia Office of Children and Families, Public Health Management Corporation and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey – surveyed parents who have used or intend to use childcare in Philadelphia.

 
 

How Data and Market Analytics Support Strategic Code Enforcement; Mt Vernon, NY

In 2019, the city of Mount Vernon partnered with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Tolemi, and Reinvestment Fund through the Cities for Responsible Investment and Strategic Enforcement initiative (Cities RISE) to begin implementing a strategic code enforcement system guided by robust data and market analytics.

 
 

Understanding 21st Century Gaps in Homeownership Between White and non-White Households in Pennsylvania

In 2019 Policy Solutions partnered with Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) to conduct a study of historical patterns of homeownership rates for different racial/ethnic groups throughout the 21st century. The study findings highlight the ongoing persistence of gaps in White and non-White homeownership throughout Pennsylvania.

 
 

Cleveland Tax Abatement Study

Reinvestment Fund completed a study of the City of Cleveland’s residential tax abatement program. The study examined 15 years of abatement activity to identify patterns of where abatement activity has been most concentrated, to understand the fiscal impacts the abatement has had on local tax revenues, and to identify opportunities to update the program in response to contemporary market conditions in the city.

 
 

Resolving Landlord-Tenant Disputes: An Analysis of Judgments by Agreement in Philadelphia’s Eviction Process

In this Brief, Reinvestment Fund reviews the learnings from an analysis of JBAs as well as interviews with tenants and landlords (and their respective attorneys) and court observation.

 
 

Rural Food Access Investment Area Analysis

Across the country, 17.3 million rural U.S. residents lack equitable access to supermarkets. Reinvestment Fund’s new Rural Food Access Investment Area (RFAIA) analysis, uses 2012-2106 Census data to determine 11.3 million underserved rural residents live in areas that could support new or expanded food retail options. Despite the need for improved access to fresh and healthy foods in rural areas, many analyses of food access—and many investments to improve food access—have focused on urban areas.

 
 

Mortgage Lending in Philadelphia: Key Take-Aways from the 2018 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Release

Each year, the federal government releases a comprehensive database on mortgage lending activities across the US based on activity reported by lending institutions under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). This year, there were a number of changes to the database; some changes from 2015 revisions expanded what we can know about mortgage applications (e.g., the age of borrowers) and other 2017-era changes limited that knowledge (e.g., suppressing applicant credit information). Read the report to see what the data reveals about mortgage lending activity in Philadelphia.

 
 

Community of Practice: Summary Report

On April 9 – 10, Reinvestment Fund and the City of Kansas City, Missouri hosted the second Market Value Analysis Community of Practice (COP) convening. The COP brought together representatives from cities and organizations from around the country who use Reinvestment Fund’s Market Value Analysis (MVA) to inform community and economic development activities in their communities.  This brief presents a summary of the panels, discussions, and key learnings from the event.

 
 

Maybe it Really Does Take a Village: Supporting the Creation of High-Quality Unsubsidized Affordable Rental Housing in Legacy Cities

A working paper exploring the Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) phenomenon. The paper derives learnings from interviews conducted with practitioners, funders, developers and policymakers. Those learnings are also rooted in data on the NOAH stock and the types of markets wherein NOAH seems to be most effectively created. The paper concludes with a thought experiment about how the power of the market could be harnessed to support the production and preservation of NOAH for modest-income households in a way that is both responsive to the realities of the housing market in general as well as to local market conditions.

 
 

HEMAP’s Enduring Impact in Pennsylvania

Throughout its history, the Pennsylvania’s HEMAP has received great acclaim for its design and impact. HEMAP is a program that was designed to provide temporary assistance to families who, through not fault of their own, were seriously delinquent with their home mortgage. Reinvestment Fund released a Research Brief titled “What if Pennsylvania Had Not Had HEMAP?” in 2012. At the time, Pennsylvania, like much of the United States, was climbing out of the throes of one of the most significant recessions in our nation’s history.

 
 

Understanding Infant and Toddler Care in Philadelphia: Capacity, Shortages, and Market Barriers

With support from the Vanguard Strong Start for Kids Program™, Reinvestment Fund conducted a first-of-its-kind study to estimate the supply of and demand for care specifically for the infant and toddler sector in Philadelphia. Combining a citywide provider survey and focus groups with providers from center- and home-based settings, this study sought to estimate the shortage of infant and toddler care across the city and to learn more about the providers offering infant and toddler care as well as the barriers that prevent other providers from entering the infant and toddler care market.

 
 

Estimating Changes in the Supply of and Demand for Child Care in Philadelphia (2018)

In 2014, with support from The William Penn Foundation, Reinvestment Fund conducted an initial analysis of the supply of and demand for child care in Philadelphia to identify areas of the city where targeted investments could help address shortages of high-quality child care. Reinvestment Fund’s 2018 childcare analysis provides estimates to track the change over time in the supply of, demand for, and shortages in child care.

 
 

Understanding the Landscape and Estimating Changes in Access to Child Care in Metro Atlanta

In 2017, Reinvestment Fund conducted an initial analysis of the supply of and demand for child care in the five-county metro Atlanta region (Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties), to identify areas where targeted investments could help address shortages of high-quality child care. In addition, an interactive web-based tool, the ATL ACCESS Map: Atlanta Child Care and Early Learning Supply, was created to present the results of this analysis.

This report, developed with support from the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation, presents the results of descriptive and spatial analyses of the child care landscape in the five-county region in 2018 and includes analysis of changes observed since the initial 2017 study.

 
 

Mt. Holly Gardens: A Case Study of Redevelopment in New Jersey

Across the United States, communities are struggling with the challenges associated with neighborhood decline. Practitioners and policymakers are beginning to realize that the task is oftentimes more difficult when the communities facing these challenges are in older suburban areas where: (a) poverty is an increasingly prevalent issue; and (b) the resources and expertise to manage issues associated with poverty and disinvestment that exists in cities are less prevalent.

 
 

2018 Update of the Limited Supermarket Access Analysis

Despite gains over the past decade, limited access to healthy food continues to affect urban and rural communities across the United States. Financing the construction of new supermarkets and the expansion of existing stores is one of the primary strategies to increase access to sources of healthy food in underserved communities. Reinvestment Fund’s Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) analysis is a tool to help investors and policymakers identify areas across the 48 contiguous United States and the District of Columbia that have both inadequate and inequitable access to healthy food and sufficient market demand for new or expanded food retail operations.

 
 

Reverse Mortgages in Philadelphia: Lending Patterns, Foreclosures & Homeowner Experiences

From 2009 through 2016, Philadelphia was one of the most active reverse mortgage lending markets in the nation. With support from the City of Philadelphia, Reinvestment Fund collected and analyzed data on the frequency, terms and geographic distribution of reverse mortgages. This lending analysis was supplemented with in-depth interviews conducted with Philadelphia homeowners, and their heirs, who obtained a reverse mortgage and subsequently experienced a foreclosure – something they never thought possible. Interviews focused on borrowers’ experiences, from the moment they first contemplated a reverse mortgage through the point that they experienced a foreclosure filing, and then through the resolution of that foreclosure process. This work is part of a larger investigation into the potential fair housing implications of reverse mortgage lending in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

 
 

Childcare Analysis for Metro Atlanta

High-quality early care and learning supports positive development and helps prepare children for success in school and beyond. Quality child care is also critical for families, as it allows parents to maintain employment. With support from the Richard W. Goldman Family Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Reinvestment Fund conducted a study of the supply of and demand for child care in the five-county metro Atlanta region (Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties).

 
 

Estimating Changes in the Supply of and Demand for Child Care in Philadelphia (2017)

In 2014, with support from The William Penn Foundation, Reinvestment Fund conducted an initial analysis of the supply of and demand for child care in Philadelphia to identify areas of the city where targeted investments could help address shortages of high-quality child care. Now in its third update, Reinvestment Fund’s 2017 childcare analysis provides updated estimates to track the change over time in the supply of, demand for, and shortages in child care.  This report presents the results of descriptive and spatial analyses of the child care landscape in Philadelphia in 2017. It details both short- and long-term changes in the supply of, demand for, and gaps in care; the year-to-year changes from 2016 to 2017, as well as shifts since the first analyses were conducted in 2014.

 
 

Mortgage Lending in Philadelphia — Key Take-Aways from the 2016 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data Release

Each year, lending institutions across the country report their mortgage lending activity under a law known as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Enacted by Congress in 1975 and amended several times since, HMDA data are a critical resource to understand how dollars flow into communities to support home purchasing, refinancing mortgages, or making home improvements. Regulators use HMDA for various purposes, which include assessments of lenders’ community reinvestment obligations and adherence to civil rights laws.

The 2016 HMDA data were recently released providing an opportunity to look at the local mortgage lending environment – trends in loan volume, the kinds of loans being made, where loans are made, how efficiently different groups can access credit, what entities purchase the home loans once made, and what lenders are originating mortgages in Philadelphia.