In November 2003 the Joint Center, with funding from the Ford Foundation, Freddie Mac and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, convened a two-day symposium: Building Assets, Building Credit. The symposium placed a spotlight on access to financial services as a gateway to homeownership and focused on the roles of savings, transaction accounts, short-term credit providers, and credit scores in impeding or facilitating asset accumulation for low-income individual and communities. Participants included academics, advocates, private and nonprofit industry representatives and government regulators.
The symposium was created to improve understanding of the reasons for and implications of differences in access to and utilization of asset-building financial services in low-income and minority communities. While housing is a key cornerstone of wealth, borrowers experience with the financial mainstream before purchase plays a part in the products and pricing they receive. Thus the Joint Center and the symposium funders assembled participants from both financial services and housing sectors to give their perspectives and to ponder solutions.
The papers from this symposium can be found in the Publications section of this website (see 2004 papers).
The book, Building Assets, Building Credit: Creating Wealth in Low-Income Communities, which includes selected papers from the symposium, can be found & ordered on the Books page.