Financing Low-income Communities

A new report by the Brookings Institution addresses changing capital markets and their implications for community development finance.

1 minute read

July 19, 2001, 10:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Economic restructuring, the emergence of telecommunications and information technology, and other national and global trends have dramatically changed the environments in which community development takes place. Capital gaps have changed, capital itself is becoming more "de-localized," and the financial services industry has evolved entirely new ways to transact business and service customers. But whereas the mainstream financial world has changed enormously over the past several decades, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) by and large have not. This article discusses how the CDFI industry will need to re-engineer, reposition, and re-tool itself in order to remain an effective conduit for the flow of capital to low-income communities.

Thanks to Brookings Institution

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 in The Brookings Institution

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