Women face unique challenges when it comes to financial security. To address this issue, join the California Women's Legislative Caucus, the California Commission on the Status of Women, the California Women's Agenda and the New America Foundation's Asset Building Program for a lunchtime discussion on how financial empowerment strategies can create asset ownership and savings opportunities for women throughout California. The panel convenes on Friday, July 17th, in San Diego at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.
Click here for more information and to RSVP.
New America's Asset Building Program is firmly
established in California with the aim of advancing policies
that build savings and assets for all Californians. The California office, established in 2004, is widely credited
with securing legislative changes allowing Californians to "split" their refunds
on their tax returns, as well as enabling TANF recipients and applicants in
California to
save for college and retirement without losing key public benefits. The
California office also succeeded in securing
bipartisan legislation to create savings accounts at birth for each newborn in
California. Click
here for more.
A bill to dramatically increase national service by expanding AmeriCorps hits President Obama's desk soon. While he's at it, we hope he will consider creating a different kind of corps -- a volunteer financial services corps to put quality financial advice within the reach of every American.
A whopping 44 percent of Mission District residents don't have low credit scores. They have NO credit scores. Without them, the only loans they can get are the loans no one wants - those with pricey interest rates and harsh terms. And if doors to affordable credit seemed closed to these consumers before the financial meltdown, they're slammed shut now.
Remember fieldtrips? All 535 members of Congress should take one this week to Room 675 of the County Courthouse in Philadelphia. Doing so would bust some myths surrounding the "cram down" legislation – now stalled in the Senate – that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce payments on troubled mortgages.
The tanking economy is putting local governments in a double bind.
As the ranks of the poor and jobless swell, authorities have dwindling
funds to help them. Incredibly, officials in San Francisco and other
cities can't even prioritize who to help because they don't know who
their poorest citizens are. The problem lies with an obsolete federal
measure of poverty that will only make hard times harder in San
Francisco until it's changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded
just such a revolution in New York City, allowing… more
With falling home prices, rising food and fuel costs and an unemployment rate well above the national average, the current economic downturn may push already vulnerable California families to the brink of financial destitution. Thousands of people may turn to welfare for support in the coming months. That's OK -- that's the purpose of temporary assistance. It's not as if this is the money-for-nothing welfare of the early 1990s; these folks are required to start looking for work the second… more
To promote local economic development, California policymakers should
create Banking Development Districts, a proven way to connect
lower-income unbanked Californians with the financial products and
services they need to enter the financial mainstream and begin to build
savings and assets. It is modeled after New York State's successful
Banking Development District program.
For the full text of the issue brief, please see the PDF attached below.
The California Employee Savings Program creates a voluntary, universal,
portable retirement account for California workers who do not have
access to a workplace retirement savings plan. It would give six
million California workers and their families an opportunity to have
their own workplace retirement savings plans to supplement their basic
Social Security benefits. The California Employee Savings Program would
also give hundreds of thousands of California small businesses an easy,
low-cost, voluntary way to offer a retirement savings plan to their
The CA Workforce Mobility and Savings Initiative, reforms the asset
limit in the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids
(CalWORKs) program, to encourage low-income families to build the
savings they need to permanently exit welfare. The measure repeals the
$2,000 asset limit in CalWORKs for current recipients and raises it for
new applicants from $2,000 to $7,000 while also eliminating the $4,650
vehicle limit. By reforming the asset limit, this measure restores the
stated goal of the CalWORKs program by assisting families in achieving
The current economic downturn, triggered in part by excessive household debt and
deflating housing prices, underscores the central role asset ownership plays in
the economic security of California
families and the broader economy. Yet,
half of all Americans currently have few or no assets, in part due to policies
that encourage savings and wealth accumulation that benefit the upper half of
earners. The purpose of New America's
Asset Building Program, is to significantly broaden savings and assets
ownership in America,
In Califonia's current legislative session, the Asset Building Program
is advancing a comprehensive legislative package of state policy
intiatives to broaden savings and ownership opportunities for
Californians. … more
Women face unique challenges when it comes to financial security. To address this issue, join the California Women's Legislative Caucus, the California Commission on the Status of Women, the California Women's Agenda and the New America Foundation's Asset Building Program for a lunchtime discussion on how financial empowerment strategies can create asset ownership and savings opportunities for women throughout California who aspire to be financially secure.
This event is free and open to the public and lunch will be… more
Too many Angelenos lack a basic financial tool – a bank account. Without one they pay more to cash their paychecks, pay their bills, and don't have a safe place to keep their money. And a bank account is the first step onto the ladder of affordable financial services people need throughout their lives. Without one, it’s harder to build credit and get well-priced car loans and mortgages – the exact financial tools needed to plan ahead and climb… more
Please join us on January 13, 2009, for the sixth California Working Families Policy Summit, hosted by the California Center for Research on Women and Families for a stimulating day of discussion and debate about the needs and aspirations of California's working families.
On Wednesday, December 17th, the Bipartisan Asset Policy Forum hosted American Dream 2.0: Safe & Sound First-Time Homeownership Strategies for California Working Families, a dynamic lunchtime discussion on how public policy can encourage wealth-building in California to bring homeownership opportunities into reach for working families across our state.
Volatile energy costs are a concern for every California family-particularly the millions of households for whom every extra dollar spent on energy comes at the expense of other necessities and the ability to save. For these families, securing affordable energy would result in savings that could be used for short- or long-term investments. In a cruel twist, the people most in need of relief from high energy costs are those least able to afford the longer-term investments that… more
New America's Asset Building Program is
pursuing several initiatives this legislative session. Click
here for a summary, or please see below for links to specific bills and
resolutions.
In today's economy, financial security and
mobility depend not just on one's job and income, which can come and go in a flash,
but increasingly on one's ability to accumulate assets, both personal and
financial. The purpose of New America's Asset Building Program is to
significantly broaden savings and assets ownership in America,
thereby providing all Americans with both the means to get ahead and a direct
stake in the overall success of our economy.
While pursuing an ambitious policy agenda at the federal level, we
recognize that it is at the state level, in our nation's ‘laboratories
of democracy' where the most innovative policies are often enacted. In
the 2009 California legislative session, we are advancing a package of
state policy initiatives. Click here to access our legislative package.
Past Event
Following the Bank on LA launch press conference with Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa, the California Asset Building Program and AARP California
co-hosted Banking
on Opportunity: Strategies to Get Angelenos on the Path to Financial Security,
at the Community Financial Resources
Center in LA. At the
event, Dr. Manuel Pastor shared his latest research on financial services and
the under-served in LA, Olivia Calderon discussed financial empowerment
strategies moving forward in Sacramento, Matt Fellowes shared emerging
national research, Sophia Heller discussed the Mayor's broader policy agenda
and asset-building strategies for all Angelenos. Stay tuned for the video of
this event.
