Roberto Quercia–PI. The UNC Center for Community Capital (CCC) will conduct three affordable housing and financial capability research and evaluation projects for the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. These projects are the following:
- CCC will serve as a research partner for three affordable housing organizations that are working to expand financial capability services to their affordable housing clients. The three partner organizations will be the Cleveland Housing Network (CHN), The Resurrection Project (Chicago), and the New York City Housing Authority in collaboration with the New York City Office of Financial Empowerment. CCC’s role will be to provide research and evaluation advisory services to help these organizations document the impact of integrating financial capability services into their affordable housing programs and to inform the larger financial capability and affordable housing fields about best practices and lessons learned from these innovative pilots.
- CCC will also research and write a white paper on the potential for financial technology to enhance the delivery and scaling of financial capability services and products to underserved consumers; and
- CCC will develop an Opportunity Assessment that JPMC might use in any of its funding sites. The Opportunity Assessment would utilize a two-fold approach: first, the creation of a data-driven index of place-based opportunity that will provide JPMC and its community partners with an important tool with which to assess and refine community development and investment strategies; and second, the use of community-level research that will help residents and community organizations define and take ownership of the vibrancy and well-being of their immediate and broader neighborhoods. The Opportunity Assessment we propose has housing at its center, since the home is the site where residents and opportunity meet. Central to our analysis is one driving question: how can housing be leveraged to promote household and community prosperity?”