of civil society organisations, is that the benefits from bulgaria's euro area membership far outweigh the risks and costs. 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches quite recently, a collective monograph'challenges facing the bulgarian economy on its way to euro area membership'was published by sofia university to mark the 120th anniversary of the department of economics within the faculty of economics of sofia university – the oldest department of economics in bulgaria. this monograph answers the same questions which have been brought up now. three current and two former employees of the bnb, who have an important contribution to the bank's research programme, participated in the preparation of this monograph, though as co - authors in their academic capacity and not representing the bnb. one of the primary conclusions in the monograph is that the bulgarian economy is highly prepared for the adoption of the euro and for successful operation as a member of the euro area. as regards the bnb, there is a large number of analyses and studies relevant to this topic, most of which are publicly available. the bnb has published studies on topics related, for example, to : transmission of the ecb's monetary policy ; measurement of the financial cycle compared to the euro area ; the exchange rate and assessment of its equilibrium ; measuring the business cycle in bulgaria and its degree of synchronisation with the business cycle in the eu / euro area ; competitiveness of the bulgarian economy ; macroprudential aspects of banking supervision ; dynamics and factors of the labour market, investments and the housing market. additionally, from july 2018 when the real work on bulgaria's accession to the euro area began, until july 2020 when the decision was made on bulgaria's entry into the eu's banking union and the inclusion of the bulgarian lev in the exchange rate mechanism, the bnb governing council reviewed more than 60 reports and made the relevant decisions on this topic. from that date until today another 200 decisions or so were made in the context of bulgaria's participation in the eu's banking union, backed up by serious analytical work. therefore, as far as the bnb is concerned, no stone has been left unturned on this topic. what i would like to stress is that there are enough representative, thorough and up - todate analyses on the implications of bulgaria's accession to the euro area. the addition of more analyses at this moment would only further delay the process and would hardly enhance the quality. what we need now is not new

to coordinate efforts on a regional scale to avoid preventable foreclosures. this work continues, and the group is now expanding its efforts to also help families that have already gone through a foreclosure. this year, the task force is beginning a series of foreclosure recovery workshops across the valley. families will learn about local programs and assistance, including job training and employment assistance. credit counselors will help them begin repairing their damaged credit. and, in cases in which they may be victims of fraud, they will receive guidance and referrals to legal aid attorneys. as a final example, in cleveland, local leaders in the slavic village neighborhood have been dealing with some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation since the 1990s. cleveland saw population loss for five successive decades, resulting in an oversupply of housing. with the onset of the financial crisis, the problem began to worsen dramatically. by 2007, slavic village was the zip code with the highest number of foreclosures in the nation. by 2010, more than 1, 500 properties in a neighborhood of 11, 000 homes needed to be demolished. this community has a history of strong neighborhood organizations, and as might be expected, its residents, community leaders, nonprofits, local governments, and companies stepped up their efforts. in one partnership, community groups are using data provided by a local university to identify borrowers at risk of foreclosure and are reaching out to them, door to door, to see what might be done to prevent a foreclosure. in another example, residents and community leaders in slavic village alerted county prosecutors to fraudulent lending in the neighborhood. as the crisis continues to play out, community leaders have found ways to reuse vacant land, adding gardens, yard expansions, and bike trails among the neighborhood ’ s declining number of homes, making it safer and more attractive. business leaders are helping as well by purchasing and demolishing properties adjacent to the gardens and trails and supporting the renovation and expansion of a nearby school and recreation center. for the metropolitan statistical area, the poverty rate increased from 12. 5 percent to 15. 6 percent between 2007 and 2009 ( for one - year estimates, see u. s. census bureau ( 2007 ), american community survey ( washington : census bureau ) ; and u. s. census bureau ( 2009 ), american community survey ( washington : census bureau ) ) the unemployment rate in the area rose from roughly 4.