NCBM

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced July 13th that HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will now provide mortgage loan insurance for hospital refinancing. Prior to this, hospitals could only get FHA insurance on loans that included a substantial... Read More →

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement on the May 2009 Employment Situation report released June 5, 2009: “This past May, our economy lost 345,000 jobs, bringing the total number of jobs lost since this recession began to 6 million. The overall unemployment rate... Read More →

Research Kicks Off “Click It or Ticket” Nationwide Enforcement Campaign Set To Run May 18-31 A U.S. Department of Transportation study recently released estimates that 1,652 lives could be saved and 22,372 serious injuries avoided each year on America’s roadways if seat belt use rates... Read More →

(USA TODAY/May 4, 2009)                   Meet the forgotten housing crisis.  While most attention has focused on the wave of foreclosures sweeping mostly middle-class, suburban Sunbelt neighborhoods from California to Florida, the nation’s emptiest neighborhoods have remained concentrated... Read More →

Why Do Millions of Americans Struggle With Reading and Writing? (Christian Science Monitor/May 7, 2009) For the first time, a detailed portrait of America’s least literate adults is emerging. About 30 million people - 14 percent of the US population 16 and older - have trouble with basic reading... Read More →

(CongressNow/May 7, 2009) The White House released this morning a detailed fiscal 2010 budget plan that proposes cutting or eliminating a broad range of federal programs, saving an estimated $17 billion in the $3.5 trillion budget request. Of the $17 billion in savings from 121 programs, about $11.5... Read More →

The Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives has developed a fact sheet that highlights primary elements of the federal budget that benefits the African American community.  Download African American Budget Highlights Fact Sheet  Read More →

The Congressional Research Service has released a new report detailing federally backed student loan programs. The administration’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal and the Congressional budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 13) call for the Education Department to administer many more federal student loans... Read More →

The digital disparity that currently impacts our communities is two-fold: (1) many low-income families do not have access to affordable Internet via a high-speed broadband connection at home, and (2) we lack culturally relevant content & quality programs. Minority buying power, prior to the economic... Read More →

Job Sprawl Revisited by Elizabeth Kneebone, Senior Research Analyst, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institute  (April 6, 2009)–An analysis of the spatial location of private-sector jobs in 98 of the largest metropolitan areas by employment reveals that: Only 21 percent of employees in... Read More →