|
NNIP PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Founded in 1985, The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) is the only NNIP partner that serves as a community development financial institution (CDFI). The Fund follows a wealth- building agenda for low- and moderate-income people through the strategic use of capital, information, and market/systems innovation. TRF works to alleviate poverty through financial support of affordable housing, community service organizations, small businesses, workforce development programs, and energy conservation projects. Operating over a primary and secondary target region that includes eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware, TRF currently manages a total of approximately $120 million in assets from more than 700 individual and institutional investors. In fiscal year 2001, the Fund approved loans of more than $50 million. The Fund builds public and private partnerships that connect low-wealth people and places with opportunity, information, and resources. In addition, TRF provides relevant and high quality research, information, and policy ideas to government, nonprofit institutions, and private-sector partners. For example, the Fund recently published Choices: A Report on the State of the Region's Housing Market, a collaborative effort with the Metropolitan Philadelphia Policy Center. Funded by the William Penn Foundation, the report includes findings and policy recommendations on issues such as residential development, homeownership, and affordable housing. Public Policy and Program Assessment Department Created in 1999, the Public Policy and Program Assessment Department conducts research into a broad array of economic development issues and houses the Fund's NNIP work. Its portfolio of research includes: 1) creating and using impact assessment tools for the community and economic development industry; 2) building a model to analyze real estate markets in distressed cities and towns and translating that analysis into practical public resource allocation decisions; and 3) influencing housing and workforce investment decisions that affect TRF's service community. The Policy Department conducts social impact assessments for the Fund's programs and for municipalities as contracted. The Public Policy and Program Assessment Department collects and measures data for social impact assessments, research, and policy proposals. TRF has packaged and disseminated this data in a CD-ROM through the Philadelphia Indicators Project (PIP). One of the project's goals is to broaden access to information regarding neighborhood profile data, the end result being a more effective and concerted neighborhood revitalization. Released in June 2002, PIP databases include property-based data and indicators on demographics, vital statistics, and housing. Data are available at the parcel level and/or census tract level; the software also allows users to aggregate units of measurement to create customized areas.
The Fund has used neighborhood-level data in research on issues as diverse as affordable housing, vacant land and building use, and access to credit. In a recent study, the Policy Department looked at the nature and impact of predatory lending in the Philadelphia mortgage market using data from Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program applications and the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office. The potential outgrowth of this research will be a multi-faceted approach to eliminating the threat of predatory lending to TRF's service community.
In addition, the Fund consulted for the City on its Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) - a strategy to rebuild Philadelphia neighborhoods as thriving communities with clean and secure streets, recreational and cultural outlets, and quality housing. For each neighborhood, the Policy Department examined indicators such as housing sales prices, demolition activity, vacancy rates, owner occupancy rates, age of housing, and consumer credit profiles. Based on this analysis, TRF staff categorized neighborhoods into six market types and made local policy recommendations for each type. TRF research is contributing to a data-driven, market-oriented development strategy for the City that addresses all of its neighborhoods. PARTNER BIOGRAPHIES: Ira Goldstein, Ph.D., is The Reinvestment Fund's (TRF) Director of Public Policy and Program Assessment. TRF is a regional development finance institution dedicated to building wealth and opportunity for low-wealth communities and low- and moderate-income individuals through the promotion of socially and environmentally responsible development. Currently, Mr. Goldstein is conducting research, funded by The Ford Foundation, on predatory lending in Philadelphia. This research is designed to gain both a quantitative and qualitative understanding of the antecedents of predatory lending, as well as its consequences, for people and communities. Public Policy and Program Assessment has been the primary consultant to the Mayor of Philadelphia's plan to transform neighborhoods and eliminate blight. Mr. Goldstein has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for more than ten years where he teaches quantitative research methods.
Mr. Goldstein comes to TRF from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development where he was the Director of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity for the Mid-Atlantic region. In that position, he was responsible for enforcement of the laws and regulations under HUD's jurisdiction related to discrimination in both public and private housing. David Bartelt is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, with a research focus on housing and community development. He is author of several research monographs on housing in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, including the North Philadelphia Atlas, a compendium of neighborhood indicators. In his community outreach work, Dr. Bartelt helped develop the Philadelphia Indicators Project with Philadelphia Health Management Corporation and The Reinvestment Fund. |