The recent recession hit American Latino families especially hard—the Pew Research Center found the median household wealth of Latino families fell more than that of any other group, decreasing 66% between 2005 and 2009, from $18,359 to $6,325. Compounding those losses was a hard hit to industries employing many Latinos, such as construction, hospitality, and domestic services. It left the unemployment rate among Latinos 2% higher than it is for everyone else. Many Latino families are still struggling to regain what they’ve lost.
So the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals is teaming up with Latino business leaders, led by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, to start the Hispanic Wealth Project. They will begin by studying the problem, and then by the end of this year develop a plan they hope will help Latino families close the gap and triple their household wealth in ten years.
One major focus will be home ownership. A larger percentage of Latinos with mortgages lost their homes due to foreclosure between 2004 and 2008 than did any other group. In a statement to Griselda Navarez of Voxxi, Gary Acosta, CEO of NAHREP, said the project leaders plan to address “a broad set of factors, like small business growth, savings, education, income, jobs and financial literacy.”
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Tag: Latinos
This Clinic Is Saving Immigrants’ Lives, No Questions Asked
Being an undocumented immigrant nearly cost Mery Martinez her life. Martinez, 38, was recently diagnosed with leukemia, but because she lacked legal status — and health insurance — she was unable to find consistent treatment to fight the disease. That is, until she relocated from New York to Philadelphia and visited Puentes de Salud, a nonprofit clinic run by volunteer doctors, nurses and med school students. Puentas de Salud, or “bridges of healing”, was created in 2006 for the sole purpose of providing health care to the area’s low-income, undocumented, and uninsured Latino community, Dr. Steve Larson, one of the organization’s cofounders, told the New York Times. The group also pinpoints social determinants of health in the community and focuses on prevention as much as treatment. “It’s not about me writing prescriptions,” Dr. Larson says. “This is an underground health system.”
So far, Puentes de Salud, which operates only two evenings a week, has treated about 3,300 patients. Initial visits to the clinic cost $20. Each follow-up visit costs $10. Since the Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide assistance to illegal immigrants, and this group is generally ineligible for Medicaid, people like Martinez are often forced to either forego medical care or take advantage of inexpensive or free clinics like Puentes de Salud. With a growing need for such operations, Dr. Larson is seeking funding to open a 7,000-square-foot clinic devoted to medical services and health education, so even more immigrants like Martinez can take control of their care.
MORE: Health Reform’s Next Crucial Step: Winning Immigrants’ Trust
The Bay Area’s New Boom Will Change the Face of Silicon Valley
Like many families across America, the Youngs had holiday traditions. On Christmas Eve, they ate gumbo at Grandma’s house. On Christmas Day, they opened gifts near the tree. And on the morning after Christmas, they relaxed. That is, until 2001, when Jason Young, then a college sophomore, learned that he had just spent his last holiday in his family’s Inglewood, Calif., home. On that Dec. 26, the Youngs’ house, already in foreclosure, was taken from them for good. “It’s a surreal experience to have someone knock on your door and ask you to leave immediately,” he says. “We’d always struggled with money, but I had no idea we were going to be evicted.”
The eviction may have ruined a favorite holiday for Young, but it taught him an important lesson about fiscal responsibility—one that has informed his career since. After his family lost their home, Young learned that his single mother had accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt in an attempt to save her home; she eventually filed for bankruptcy. “It became clear to me that the math didn’t add up,” he says. “I’d always been conscientious of money, but the experience made me want to make even better financial decisions. I never wanted to be in that situation again.”
And he didn’t want other low-income kids to find themselves in that situation either, which was one of the reasons he founded Mindblown Labs in 2011. The Oakland, Calif.-based company creates mobile, educational games geared to improving financial literacy among underserved youth.
The games were an instant success. But as Young taught students how to manage their money, he also recognized a need to help them learn how to make that money in the first place. This prompted him to co-found The Hidden Genius Project, a two-year training program designed to teach young black men science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through lectures and project-based workshops. Continue reading “The Bay Area’s New Boom Will Change the Face of Silicon Valley”