California Business Minute™

The California Redevelopment Association, CRA provides legislative
advocacy, professional development and public education.  In support
of its members it responds to legislative proposals and administrative
regulations.

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Hi, I am Tim Johnson and Welcome to the California Business Minute

The challenges facing high poverty communities around the nation are the focus of a recently
released Federal Reserve System report, “The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in
America: Case Studies from Communities across the U.S.” Each of the 12 Reserve Banks
examined a high poverty area in its District and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
contributed to this report with a case study on West Fresno, a neighborhood that has seen
an increasing poverty rate over the past 30 years.

The San Francisco Fed study identified that in 2000, unemployment in the West Fresno
neighborhood stood at 23 percent; almost double that of the Fresno metropolitan statistical area.

The case studies in the report demonstrate that the issues Fresno faces are not unique; a number
of themes are common across all of the case study communities, including isolation, struggles
with human capital development, high rates of unemployment, inadequate housing, and limitations
in capacity to address the complex and interwoven issues facing their communities. However, each
community possesses unique assets that can be employed in creating a policy and programmatic
framework that provides greater opportunity for neighborhood residents and for the regions in which
those neighborhoods are situated.

The report’s findings will contribute to the Federal Reserve’s understanding of low-income
communities and their needs in carrying out ongoing community development partnerships
in these areas, and will inform other efforts to foster comprehensive solutions to community
and economic development challenges. These include lowering the barriers to developing
quality affordable housing and community facilities such as schools and health care centers,
helping to support small businesses, and improving access to tools that build financial stability.

There were 16 communities examine in the report, the 15 other communities  are: Albany,
Georgia; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Austin, Texas; Blackfeet Reservation, Montana; Cleveland,
Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Greenville, North Carolina; Holmes County, Mississippi; Martin County,
Kentucky; McDowell County, West Virginia; McKinley County, New Mexico; Miami, Florida;
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rochester, New York; and Springfield, Massachusetts.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

The report is available online at http://www.frbsf.org/cpreport/. Single copies of the publication are free
from: Publications, Mail Stop 127, Federal Reserve Board, 20th and C Streets, N.W., Washington,
DC 20551; 202-452-3245.