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.

those with low incomes, few assets, and less education – have had a more difficult time weathering the financial storm or recovering from setbacks. the same is true for communities that were already relatively poor, with fewer community assets and insufficient drivers of economic growth. to solve problems, we must first understand them. like many of you here today, the federal reserve has been engaged for some time in research and analysis of the economic challenges faced by neighborhoods and communities as well as by individuals and families. for example, in 2008, the federal reserve banks and the board of governors, in partnership with the brookings institution, published a study of the effects of concentrated bis central bankers ’ speeches poverty on communities. 1 the communities studied included older inner cities in the north, smaller cities in the south and west, native american reservations, “ gateway ” neighborhoods that are entry points for immigrants, and rural areas in appalachia and the mississippi delta. what these diverse communities had in common was that they did not share in our country ’ s general prosperity, even in good times. our research identified some of the barriers to economic progress shared by these communities, including inadequate schools and workforce skills, lack of investment in infrastructure and business development, and limited institutional capacity. not surprisingly, these communities were particularly illequipped to deal with the recession. of course, economic conditions in a given community both affect and are affected by the economic status of the individuals and families in that community. one of the most valuable sources of data on family finances is the federal reserve board ’ s triennial survey of consumer finances. 2 to better understand the effects of the crisis on households, the board, in a special update to its 2007 survey, asked the participants about their financial and personal circumstances two years later, in 2009. 3 the findings help illustrate the challenges facing families and communities. according to this special survey, lower - income households continued to experience significantly more unemployment than higher - income households. in 2009, nearly one - fourth of the families in the bottom half of the income distribution had at least one member who was out of work for some portion of the year prior to the survey ; this rate was about double that of higher - income households. declines in the values of homes and stocks sharply reduced the wealth of many americans during the crisis. three - fifths or more of families across all income groups reported a decline in wealth between 2007 and 2009, and the typical household lost nearly one - fifth of its wealth, regardless of income