Asset Building

Asset Building
CRA-NC has joined with many groups across the country in
framing in social policy through the lens of assets. Asset
policies acknowledge the protective effect that wealth
confers upon a family. Assets form a kind of moat against
emergencies.

Accountants define an asset as something with worth in
the future. This interpretation goes beyond just financial
vehicles and includes housing, education, and other social
goods.

CRA-NC participates in the North Carolina IDA and Asset
Building Collaborative. This partnership of non-profits,
government, and university researchers seek to develop
policies that encourage savings and asset accumulation in
North Carolina families.

North Carolina ranks in the bottom tier of states,
according to the latest Assets and Opportunities
Scorecard published by CFED. This owes to North Carolina's
lagging performance in several areas:
We rank 48th in per pupil spending.
We rank last in the percentage of children in poverty who
are in Head Start.
We rank 43rd in the percentage of households with
non-interest bearing checking accounts.

Asset policy is often buttressed by some of the same
findings that underpin the need for better access to
housing. They both turn on research that shows that
turning America into an "opportunity" society depends
upon addressing inequalities in access to many of the
regular institutions that make up everyday life.

Consider a few facts. For example, 70 percent of
low-income neighborhoods do not have a single bank or
credit union.

There is more of gap among races in terms of assets
than in terms of income: The average white family in
North Carolina earns 1.8 times more than the average
African-American family, but has ten (10) times more
in assets.

Almost one in three of North Carolina's children live in
a home with fewer than three months of savings.