In 2006, the Community Affairs Offices of the Federal Reserve System partnered with the Brookings Institution to examine the issue of concentrated poverty. The resulting report, The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S., profiles 16 high-poverty communities from across the country, including immigrant gateway, Native American, urban, and rural communities. Through these case studies, the report contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of poor people living in poor communities, and the policies that will be needed to bring both into the economic mainstream. Download Full Report (PDF 6.8MB) Download "A Synthesis of Themes from the Case Studies" (PDF)

On December 3, 2008, the Federal Reserve hosted a one-day policy forum at the Board of Governors in Washington DC entitled Confronting Concentrated Poverty: A Policy Forum. This event served as an opportunity to highlight and build upon the findings from a multi-year collaborative research effort between the Federal Reserve System and the Brookings Institution. The symposium brought together leading thinkers and policy-makers and focused on advancing the policy discussion around strategies for improving opportunity in distressed communities. Sessions examined how government policy can inform and support investment in both the people and places where poverty persists. It identified a practical set of policies and promising models that can serve as a first step in a renewed effort to bring people living in poverty into the economic mainstream. 

Click here for the day’s agenda and speaker presentations, including audio and video recordings.

Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner opened the day by providing remarks on the performance of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending, providing evidence disputing recent observations by CRA critics that this law is a cause of the recent Subprime lending crisis. The text of his remarks is available here. (offsite)