Launch of Assets for Artists

I haven’t blogged for more than 3 months, but not for lack of things to write about concerning asset development in the Berkshires.  I didn’t get all the funding I was after, but we decided to launch a pilot program anyway (with very little money committed for our staffing and training costs, but the savings match is covered thanks to the support of the Midas collaborative and the Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development).  We’re now out recruiting 9 low-income artists in Berkshire County to open IDAs (4 for home ownership and 5 for small business development) as part of our start-up phase.

Details on the program’s application process can be found here.  

As I started to discover last year, reporters find this notion pretty interesting — we’ve gotten recent notice here and here and here.

Local artists are getting the message.  We held two information sessions this week and I’ve responded to a number of phone calls and emails.  Some 45 artists have inquired, and most of them seem to be income-eligible according to the state guidelines. 

The pre-application forms are due April 25.  Then comes the not-so-fun task of deciding who doesn’t get accepted to the program.  In June we should be ready to begin the financial training and open accounts, and we’ll also be lining up funds for more accounts and more training in ‘09.

There’s no turning back now.

Article on Artists as Home Buyers

Here’s some nice unsolicited attention from the Boston Globe, writing about my proposed “Assets for Artists” program.

Considering that only about 7 people have ever read this blog, how strange that one of them turned out to be the Globe’s real estate editor.

Boston Globe Editorial on IDAs

The Boston Globe weighs in enthusiastically on the power of individual development accounts (IDAs) and notes that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has chosen the recipients of a second round of state funding for IDA accounts across the state. 

That $600,000 allocation includes renewed support for the Berkshire Community Action Council’s IDA program through the MASSCAP consortium, along with support for the new Berkshire County low-income artist IDA program that we plan to roll out in early 2008 through the Midas collaborative.  Lots of exciting work to look forward to.

Assets for Artists (Continued)

Long time no write.  The short excuse is that life caught up with me for a while.

Picking up where I left off, however, the “Assets for Artists” idea has evolved into a significant project with a number of partners.  Yesterday we submitted an application to the Massachusetts Cultural Council proposing 20 individual development accounts for artists/creatives in Berkshire County, along with financial education, home ownership counseling, and small business training that could reach a somewhat larger audience of artists in the county.  We also proposed a small pool of funds for microloans to Berkshire County artists (perhaps 15 loans over 2 years), along with a larger state-wide pool of funds for microloans to immigrant and refugee artists (perhaps 40 loans over 2 years), with the statewide loan pool being managed by the International Institute of Boston (an experienced microlender).  The Berkshire County activities would be managed collaboratively by the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, MASS MoCA, and the Office of Cultural Development in Pittsfield, working with experts at the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, local financial institutions, and a variety of arts organizations in different disciplines.

Overall, we feel like we wrote a nice proposal bringing together a lot of organizational strengths and an impressive planning process, but the Massachusetts Cultural Council has not funded a project quite like this in the past, so it’s hard to know how the panel will respond.

Fingers crossed.  We’ll probably hear in January.

Assets for Artists

In Berkshire County we’ve been working on plans to start up a program of matched savings accounts, micro-loans, small business assistance, and possibly home ownership education and related asset-building services for the burgeoning artist community.  Our region already lures artists through its natural beauty, housing affordability, and cultural richness, but perhaps we could do even better with an innovative support structure for artists.

As part of the planning process, we’re surveying local artists in all disciplines to learn about their income levels, housing needs, etc.  We’ve already received more than 100 responses, which is a terrific start, but I’d like to push that up above 200 before the end of August.

If you happen to be a Berkshire County artist (or if you know any), the survey can be completed online here.

Bloomberg Backs IDAs for Foster Teens

New York City is experimenting again with asset development strategies, this time providing individual development accounts (IDAs) and financial education to teens in the foster care system, according to a post at West Bronx Blog.

No one can accuse Bloomberg of being unwilling to try out some new ideas (see my April post on New York’s experimental, and controversial, payments to poor families in return for good parenting and other socially desirable behavior).

Savings for Working Families Act

Despite my sweeping knowledge of the American legislative process through Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” (come on, you know you wanna listen to it), I’m still pretty clueless about what actually has to happen for an important bill like the Savings for Working Families Act of 2007 to make it out of committee and get voted on by the full House and Senate.

I know it helps for a bill to have lots of co-Sponsors, which is why CFED has been urging people to contact their members of congress to ask them to become co-Sponsors. The bill now has 68 co-Sponsors in the House and 20 co-Sponsors in the Senate. What I don’t know is whether those are respectable numbers, enough to give the sad little bill hope, and what it takes to convert co-Sponsorship support into committee support.

I remain disappointed that my two Vermont Senators, Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, have not signed on as co-Sponsors (their House colleague, Vermont’s freshman representative Peter Welch, did sign on as a co-Sponsor, as I mentioned a few weeks ago).

As for Massachusetts, where I’ve been helping get IDAs off the ground in Berkshire County, none of the 10 House members from Massachusetts have signed on as Co-Sponsors, and neither has Edward Kennedy in the Senate. Representative Richard E. Neal of Springfield, Massachusetts, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, could be an especially important voice for this bill, since it has been sent for review to a committee he serves on, so he’s one I’d particularly love to see become a co-Sponsor.

On the Senate side, the bill is in the Senate Finance Committee, where Massachusetts Senator John Kerry serves. Kerry has already signed on as a Co-Sponsor, but I would still urge my friends and colleagues across Massachusetts to contact Senator Kerry about this bill and urge him to push his fellow Massachusetts congressmembers to co-Sponsor it, while also doing his best to help it gain more supporters from both parties in the Senate Finance Committee.

CFED has some great tools for letting your voice be heard on this bill. Please use them and urge your congressmembers to help this bill become law.  The 50,000 current IDA savers are a start, but just not enough.  900,000 IDA savers would help get our country moving in the right direction.

Berkshire County IDA Savers

The day before yesterday I sat in on the final class of a 6-week financial education course for five women who have opened individual development accounts (IDAs) at Hoosac Bank through Berkshire Community Action Council (BCAC).

It was nice to meet the people who are benefitting from this first pilot phase of the asset development initiative I’ve been pushing (with many other people in the community) for over a year now. The participants clearly seemed motivated, and they had developed a nice rapport with Linda Greenbush, the program manager at BCAC.

And now the hard work begins for them: sticking to a savings plan for the next several years in order to access the 3:1 match (made possible by a generous grant from the state of Massachusetts and private fundraising), which must be used to purchase a first home.

Although they have completed their general financial education course, the participants will continue meeting monthly with Linda and various community experts to get support in sticking to their savings goals and to receive more in-depth preparation for home ownership, including participation in a certified first time home buyer class with the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center.

Best of luck to them.

Roosevelt Institution Policy Expo

I was glad to see that young think tankers at the Roosevelt Institution’s recent Policy Expo were talking about individual development accounts and other asset development tools.

Newish blogger Niko Karvounis, a Senior Fellow at Roosevelt, addresses one of the big questions people ask about IDAs: if you’re poor, doesn’t it mean you don’t have any money to save? I like the way he answers it.

Karvounis looks like an excellent addition to the social policy blogosphere.  You’ll be hearing more from him.

Thank You Peter Welch

The Center for Enterprise Development (CFED) sent out another email today urging people to lobby congress for “The Savings for Working Families Act (SWFA) of 2007, H.R. 1514 & S. 871,” which currently has 75 co-sponsors.

Contact your Member of Congress now to increase support for matched savings to help low-income working families build wealth.

Click here to send an e-mail to your Representative, urging them to support H.R. 1514.

Click here to send an e-mail to your Senator, urging them to support S. 871.

I was pleased to see that the expanded list of co-sponsors includes Representative Peter Welch of Vermont, whom I chided back in April for a tepid response to my last email urging him to support this legislation.

Lacking any evidence to the contrary, I’m going to claim that it was my disappointed blog entry that got Welch’s attention, spurred him to look harder at the SWFA bill, and finally persuaded him to back it as a co-sponsor. Another victory for citizen activism!

Today I sent follow-up emails to Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders and Pat Leahy, so if either of them join as co-sponsors, you can be sure I’ll claim credit.