Archive
Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis
Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis (PDF)
Source: AARP
This is the first study to measure the progression of the mortgage crisis and its effect on people age 50 and older. Based on an analysis of nationwide loan-level data provided by CoreLogic for the years 2007 through 2011, this study examines loan performance based on borrower age, loan type, and borrower demographics. The study shows that no age group, race, or ethnicity has been spared from the effects of declining home values and the financial difficulties caused by the Great Recession and continuing economic weakness.
Despite the perception that older Americans are more housing secure than younger people, millions of older Americans are carrying more mortgage debt than ever before, and more than three million are at risk of losing their homes. Although the serious delinquency rate of the under-50 population is higher than that of the over-50 population, the increase in the rate of serious delinquency of older Americans has outpaced that of younger homeowners from 2007 to 2011. 1 As the mortgage crisis continues, millions of older Americans are struggling to maintain their financial security
As of December 2011, approximately 3.5 million loans of people age 50+ were underwater—meaning homeowners owe more than their home is worth, so they have no equity; 600,000 loans of people age 50+ were in foreclosure, and another 625,000 loans were 90 or more days delinquent. From 2007 to 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis.
To date, public policy programs designed to stem the progression of the foreclosure crisis have been inadequate, and programs that focus on the needs of older Americans are needed.
City Fiscal Conditions in 2012
City Fiscal Conditions in 2012
Source: National League of Cities
The nation’s cities continue to cut personnel, infrastructure investments and key services as the prolonged effects of the economic downturn take their toll on city finances according to the National League of Cities 27th annual City Fiscal Conditions report.
State Health Plans in Fiscal Austerity: The Challenge of Improving Benefits While Moderating Costs
State Health Plans in Fiscal Austerity: The Challenge of Improving Benefits While Moderating Costs
Source: Center for State and Local Government Excellence
Like all employers, state and local governments must control health care costs while still offering competitive benefit packages that will attract and retain talented employees. Eight states that have adopted innovative practices to reduce costs and improve employees’ health are featured in this publication, which comes out of a joint Center for Excellence-North Carolina State University symposium that addressed both national trends and a rich variety of lessons learned from state innovations.
New Report: The Low-Wage Recovery and Growing Inequality
New Report: The Low-Wage Recovery and Growing Inequality
Source: National Employment Law Project
This report updates NELP’s previous analyses of job loss and job growth trends during and after the Great Recession.
We find that during the recession (2008 Q1 to 2010 Q1), employment losses occurred throughout the economy, but were concentrated in mid-wage
occupations. By contrast, during the recovery (2010 Q1 to 2012 Q1), employment gains have been concentrated in lower-wage occupations, which
grew 2.7 times as fast as mid-wage and higher-wage occupations. Specifically:
- Lower-wage occupations constituted 21 percent of recession losses, but 58 percent of recovery growth.
- Mid-wage occupations constituted 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of recovery growth.
- Higher-wage occupations constituted 19 percent of recession job losses, and 20 percent of recovery growth.
Moreover, the unbalanced recession and recovery have meant that the long-term rise in inequality in the U.S. continues. The good jobs deficit is
now deeper than it was at the start of the century:
- Since the first quarter of 2001, employment has grown by 8.7 percent in lower-wage occupations and by 6.6 percent in higher-wage occupations.
- By contrast, employment in mid-wage occupations has fallen by 7.3 percent.
Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
Source: Natural Resources Defense Council
Food is simply too good to waste. Even the most sustainably farmed food does us no good if the food is never eaten. Getting food to our tables eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of freshwater consumed in the United States. Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten. That is more than 20 pounds of food per person every month. Not only does this mean that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also 25 percent of all freshwater and huge amounts of unnecessary chemicals, energy, and land. Moreover, almost all of that uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills where it accounts for almost 25 percent of U.S. methane emissions.
Nutrition is also lost in the mix — food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables. Given all the resources demanded for food production, it is critical to make sure that the least amount possible is needlessly squandered on its journey to our plates.
Benchmarks for Blight: How much blight does New Orleans have?
Benchmarks for Blight: How much blight does New Orleans have?
Source: Greater New Orleans Community Data Center
As of March 2012, there are an estimated 35,700 blighted homes and empty lots in New Orleans, down from 43,755 in September 2010, as indicated by United States Postal Service (USPS) data. The continued reduction in blight since 2010 is attributable to a strong economy and ongoing population growth complemented by the focused efforts of city agencies to bring properties into compliance. However, the City will need to begin coordinating citywide data collection efforts to track blight going forward, as USPS data will provide less reliable indicators over time.
Open For Business: How Immigrants Are Driving Small Business Creation In The United States
Open For Business: How Immigrants Are Driving Small Business Creation In The United States
Source: Partnership for a New American Economy
“Open For Business: How Immigrants Are Driving Small Business Creation In The United States” analyzes the increasing importance of foreign-born entrepreneurs on U.S. economic growth and job creation. Picking up and moving to another country is brave and risky, so perhaps it is not surprising that immigrants are venturing out and starting new businesses at a rate that far outpaces their share of the population. From local neighborhood shops to America’s largest companies, immigrant business owners contribute more than $775 billion dollars in revenue to our annual Gross Domestic Product and employ one out of every ten American workers at privately-owned companies across the country.
Key findings of the report include:
- Immigrants started 28% of all new U.S. businesses in 2011, despite accounting for just 12.9% of the U.S. population
- Over the last 15 years, immigrants have increased the rate by which they start businesses by more than 50 percent, while the native-born have seen their business generation rate decline by 10 percent
- Immigrants are now more than twice as likely to start a business as the native-born
- Immigrants start more than 25% of all businesses in seven of the eight sectors of the economy that the U.S. government expects to grow the fastest over the next decade. These include health care and social assistance (28.7%), construction (31.8%), retail trade (29.1%) and leisure and hospitality (23.9%), among others
Supporting Children of Parents with Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Abuse
Supporting Children of Parents with Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Abuse (PDF)
Source: National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center (University of California-Berkeley)
For nearly a decade, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has been advocating for integrated treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, with the understanding that those who struggle with both addiction and mental illness face complex life stressors and unique barriers to treatment (1). Up to 50% of substance abusers are suffering from PTSD, and some reports show that up to 90% have a depressive or anxiety disorder of some form (2, 3). Integrating the treatment for these two types of disorders is recognition that the whole of a person is more than the sum of his or her parts. It’s not enough to merely treat the substance abuse, and then send the individual for counseling (or vice versa). Instead, treatment should be holistic, and respond to the whole person’s needs. What is commonly left out of the equation, however, is that according to the National Prevalence Data, over two-thirds of women with co-occurring disorders are mothers (4). While integrated treatment may respond holistically to the clinical diagnoses of the client, it rarely attends to the needs of the client as a mother, the needs of the family system or more specifically, to the needs of the children.
22 Benefits of Urban Street Trees
22 Benefits of Urban Street Trees (PDF)
U.S Forest Service facts and figures and new traffic safety studies detail many urban street tree benefits. Once seen as highly problematic for many reasons, street trees are proving to be a great value to people living, working, shopping, socializing, walking and motoring in, around and through urban places.For a planting cost of $250-600 (includes first 3 years of maintenance) a single street tree returns over $90,000 of direct benefits (not including aesthetic, social and natural) in the lifetime of the tree. Street trees (generally planted from 4 feet to 8 feet from curbs) provide many benefits to those streets they occupy. These trees provide so many benefits that they should always be considered as an urban area default street making feature. With new attentions being paid to global warming, the need for energy independence, and more urban living more is becoming known about the many negative environmental impacts of treeless urban streets. We are well on the way to recognizing the need for urban street trees to be the default design, rather than a luxury item to be tolerated by traffic engineering and budget conscious city administrators.
Reform in Action: Can Publicly Reporting the Performance of Health Care Providers Spur Quality Improvement?
Reform in Action: Can Publicly Reporting the Performance of Health Care Providers Spur Quality Improvement?
Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) Alliances have been pioneers in collecting and publicly reporting data on the care provided by local physicians and hospitals, and are beginning to see their impact when it comes to improving quality. The real challenge is turning the idea of transparency into the reality of quality improvement on the ground.
In less than a decade, the push for transparency in health care has come a long way. There are public reports on the quality or cost of care provided by hospitals or physicians in every state except Alaska, Idaho, and the District of Columbia.
Measuring and publicly reporting on the quality and cost of care is crucial to improving quality and lowering health care costs nationwide, and serves three important purposes: 1) it enables patients to make informed choices about their care and be better partners with their doctors; 2) it allows health care professionals to see where they can improve and motivates them to improve their performance; and 3) it allows consumers and purchasers to see the value they are getting for their money.
Aligning Forces for Quality is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in 16 targeted communities, as well as reduce racial and ethnic disparities and provide tested local models that help propel national reform.
Exchanging People for Money: Remittances and Repatriation in Central America
Exchanging People for Money: Remittances and Repatriation in Central America (PDF)
Source: Bread for the World Institute
Immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras sent home more than $10 billion in remittances in 2011— almost all of it from the United States. Remittances comprised 17 percent of GDP in Honduras, 16 percent in El Salvador, and 10 percent in Guatemala and they dwarf both foreign direct investment and overseas development assistance. Remittances reduce poverty and help millions of families that receive them obtain food, clothing, education, housing, and health care, but they can also create dependence on the diaspora. Their greatest potential— fueling productive investment that generates jobs and income and reduces immigration pressure—is often untapped. In addition to the flow of money back to Central America, in recent years the number of immigrants returning from the United States to their home countries has increased. During fiscal year 2011, the United States deported a record 396,906 unauthorized immigrants, including more than 76,000 Central Americans. Central American governments are unprepared for these returned migrants. Many deportees end up re-migrating to the United States because of the lack of opportunities in their native countries.
A Roadmap to End Global Hunger
A Roadmap to End Global Hunger
Source: World Food Program USA
The Roadmap for Continued U.S. Leadership to End Global Hunger celebrates the U.S. role in responding to humanitarian crises and alleviating chronic hunger. To ensure U.S. programs to fight global hunger continue to positively impact the lives of millions of people in need, the Roadmap outlines six recommendations for future action.
A Primer for Mental Health Practitioners Working With Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System
A Primer for Mental Health Practitioners Working With Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System (PDF)
Source: Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health
Many mental health practitioners were trained in programs or at a time when very little attention was paid during the course of training to youth involved in the juvenile justice system. For a variety of reasons, general clinical training does not ordinarily equip a mental health practitioner to operate within the juvenile justice context. Practitioners who have been trained within more recently developed programs with a “forensic” emphasis may be more familiar with adults within the criminal justice system than with juveniles, more focused upon technical assessments, such as competency to stand trial, than upon youth-specific developmental and functional assessments, or relatively unfamiliar with the emerging literature regarding youth with mental health needs who have had contact with the juvenile justice system or penetrated to its deeper end programs.
This paper provides an overview for mental health practitioners who provide professional services to youth who are involved with the juvenile justice system. This overview emphasizes emerging research and practices, the emerging conceptualization of trauma and its implications for youth involved with the juvenile justice system, and implications for policy and practice. While primarily intended for mental health professionals working within system of care communities or interested in developing a system of care collaboration in their area, this paper is relevant for any mental health practitioner providing professional services to youth involved or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system. It is also relevant for juvenile court and juvenile justice professionals whose work brings them into contact with youth with significant mental health needs.
New Report Shows Progress in Child Education and Health Despite Economic Declines
New Report Shows Progress in Child Education and Health Despite Economic Declines (PDF)
Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT ® Data Book shows both promising progress and discouraging setbacks for the nation’s children: While their academic achievement and health improved in most states, their economic well-being continued to decline.
Over the period of roughly 2005 to 2011, the improvements in children’s health and education include a 20 percent decrease in the number of kids without health insurance; a 16 percent drop in the child and teen death rate; an 11 percent reduction in the rate of high school students not graduating in four years; and an 8 percent reduction in the proportion of eighth-graders scoring less than proficient in math.
The 2012 Data Book indicates kids and families nationwide are still struggling economically in the wake of the recession. In 2010, one-third of youths had parents without secure employment — an increase of 22 percent, or about 4 million children, in just two years. From 2005 to 2010, the number of children living in poverty rose by 2.4 million.
Independent high-level commission finds that an epidemic of bad laws and human rights abuses is stifling the global AIDS response
Punitive laws and human rights abuses are costing lives, wasting money and stifling the global AIDS response, according to a report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body of global leaders and experts. The Commission report, “HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health,” finds evidence that governments in every region of the world have wasted the potential of legal systems in the fight against HIV. The report also concludes that laws based on evidence and human rights strengthen the global AIDS response – these laws exist and must be brought to scale urgently.…The Global Commission on HIV and the Law—comprising former heads of state and leading legal, human rights and HIV experts—based its report on extensive research and first-hand accounts from more than 1,000 people in 140 countries. The Commission, supported by the United Nations Development Programme on behalf of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, found that punitive laws and discriminatory practices in many countries undermine progress against HIV.For example, laws and legally condoned customs that fail to protect women and girls from violence deepen gender inequalities and increase their vulnerability to HIV. Some intellectual property laws and policies are not consistent with international human rights law and impede access to lifesaving treatment and prevention. Laws that criminalise and dehumanise populations at highest risk of HIV—including men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and injecting drug users—drive people underground, away from essential health services and heighten their risk of HIV. Laws that criminalise HIV transmission, exposure or non-disclosure of HIV status discourage people from getting tested and treated.
Getting Infrastructure Going: A New Approach
Getting Infrastructure Going: A New Approach
Big infrastructure projects take years or even decades to complete. Too often, that’s because planning work gets bogged down in protracted environmental reviews. But new research by Regional Plan Association has identified ways environmental analysis could be completed more quickly, without sacrificing environmental protections.In “Getting Infrastructure Going: Expediting the Environmental Review Process,” RPA finds that the National Environmental Policy Act adopted in 1970 still provides a strong regulatory framework for protecting the environment. But misguided implementation of the law contributes to lengthy delays in delivering big infrastructure projects.Stretching out projects far longer than initially projected drives up costs and delays improvements to vital infrastructure, from repair of aging roads and bridges to construction of new rail lines to the expansion of key shipping facilities. As projects take longer to complete, their costs rise. The uncertainty discourages private investors and erodes public confidence in government’s ability to use infrastructure funding wisely.In the more than 40 years since NEPA’s adoption, the practice of carrying out environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects has significantly lengthened project delivery times. For example, in 2011, the average time it took to complete an environmental impact statement on a highway project was more than eight years, compared with two years in the 1970s.The study describes how inconsistent policies among myriad government agencies contribute to delays. Some environmental reviews are longer and more complex than necessary, in part as a defense against the risk of future litigation. An absence of consensus from the outset over the nature or scope of projects also leads to logjams, as stakeholders seek to modify project goals during the environmental review process.
Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis
Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis
Source: AARP
This is the first study to measure the progression of the mortgage crisis and its effect on people age 50 and older. Based on an analysis of nationwide loan-level data for the years 2007 to 2011, this study examines loan performance based on borrower age, loan type, and borrower demographics.
Despite the perception that older Americans are more housing secure than younger people, millions of older Americans are carrying more mortgage debt than ever before, and more than three million are at risk of losing their homes. As of December 2011, approximately 3.5 million loans of people age 50+ were underwater—meaning homeowners owe more than their home is worth, so they have no equity; 600,000 loans of people age 50+ were in foreclosure, and another 625,000 loans were 90 or more days delinquent. From 2007 to 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis.
To date, public policy programs designed to stem the progression of the foreclosure crisis have been inadequate, and programs that focus on the unique needs of older Americans are needed.
U.S. Metro Economies: Outlook – Gross Metropolitan Product, and Critical Role of Transportation Infrastructure
U.S. Metro Economies: Outlook – Gross Metropolitan Product, and Critical Role of Transportation Infrastructure
Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors
From press release (PDF):
A new report released today by The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) shows that the nation’s cities and their metro areas continue to make steady progress toward economic recovery, while sounding a warning alarm that failure to dramatically increase investment in transportation infrastructure could cause skyrocketing costs to families, commuters and businesses, potentially doubling over the next decade.
The report examines the impact that population increases, employment growth, export expansion and economic output will have on metropolitan areas.
The report forecasts that by the end of 2012, 300 of the nation’s 363 metro areas will experience real economic growth (gross metro product), and predicts that over the remainder of the year the nation’s economy will see 1.4 percent increase in employment and a real GDP growth of 2.0 percent. Prepared by IHS Global Insight, the report also projects that household budgets will receive a boost from falling gas prices that are expected to decline to $3.11/gallon by the fall.
Shackling of pregnant women and girls in correctional systems
Shackling of pregnant women and girls in correctional systems (PDF)
Source: National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Contrary to official records and statistics, a large number of girls involved in the justice system have been pregnant. In a study of girls in Florida, according to case review data, 8% reported pregnancy in their lifetime. However, when girls were interviewed, 24% reported they had been pregnant (Acoca & Dedel, 1998). Other studies corroborate these findings and demonstrate that of the almost 30% of girls who reported lifetime pregnancy, 16% had been pregnant while incarcerated. Teen pregnancy presents a number of challenges, which increase exponentially for females who are incarcerated. One of the most archaic and dangerous practices includes the shackling of pregnant girls and women. Though outlawed in several states, there exists no legislation to prohibit the use of physical restraints on pregnant women even when in the third trimester in the State of Florida. Twenty-nine percent of girls reported that they had been shackled at the ankles and wrists while pregnant (Acoca, 2004). This practice should be banned for all females who are in custody.
United States Peace Index 2012
United States Peace Index 2012 (PDF)
Source: Institute for Economics and Peace
The United States Peace Index (USPI), produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), provides a comprehensive measure of U.S. peacefulness dating back to 1991. It also provides an analysis of the socio-economic measures that are associated with peace as well as estimates of the costs of violence and the economic benefits that would flow from increases in peace. This is the second edition of the U.S. Peace Index.
This year a Metropolitan Peace Index has also been produced which measures the peacefulness of 61 metropolitan statistical areas within the U.S. The USPI is based on the work of the Global Peace Index, the preeminent global measure of peacefulness, which has been produced by IEP every year since 2007.
The last twenty years have seen a substantial and sustained reduction in direct violence in the U.S. The homicide rate has halved since 1991, with a concurrent reduction in the violent crime rate from 748 to 399 violent crimes per 100,000 over this period. Although this trend seemed to be levelling off at the turn of the century, the last three years have seen successive improvements in peace.
The 2012 USPI results have also been correlated against a large secondary dataset of economic, educational, health, demographic, and social capital factors, in order to determine the environments which are most closely associated with peace in the U.S.
Although there was a strong relationship between the drop in crime and the increase in the incarceration rate in the 90s, this relationship is no longer evident with 27 states decreasing their incarceration rates while simultaneously experiencing reductions in their violent crime rates. Between 2000 and 2010, New York experienced a fall in violent crime and incarceration every year, as well as falls in its homicide rate.
