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Insights
Fall-Winter 2019
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Demonstrating Promising Innovations
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How can we help residents in the historically disadvantaged Bayview Neighborhood avoid utility shutoff to remain in their home and community?
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Expanding Proven Innovations
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Piloting ChexAdvisor
Bank On San Francisco is addressing one of the most critical barriers low-income residents face opening a safe, affordable account: a negative
ChexSystems
record. This past quarter, we began pilot testing ChexAdvisor, a tool that allows a financial coach to review a client’s ChexSystems report in real-time. We look forward to sharing the results of this pilot in the spring.
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“Within one month, with the help of his coach, Jesse opened a safe bank account, saved $750, opened a secured credit card, and created a plan to pay off his student loan of $2,200 at a fraction of what was owed.”
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New Partnerships
We’re excited to announce two new partnerships. With the
San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing
we are supporting the
Rising Up Campaign
, integrating financial coaching into a rapid rehousing program to help transitional aged youth exit homelessness.With the
Health Service System (HSS)
, OFE is piloting financial coaching for city employees at several City departments, while supporting HSS to expand its website to provide all city employees and retirees resources to support their financial health and wellbeing.
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Supporting Students at all Public Schools
Kindergarten to College
(K2C) opened 11,000 new accounts this fall for a total of 43,000 accounts fully covering kindergarten to 9
th
grade across all 114 San Francisco Public Schools. That level of scale is pushing us to engage families and students as strategically as possible. Among other steps, we are extending our partnership with the behavioral science firm
ideas42
to help identify and remove barriers families face in acting on their intention to save for their child’s future. Early next year, OFE and ideas42 will co-author a paper on designing equitable college savings programs.
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We're Hiring!
K2C is seeking a full-time
Community Engagement Specialist
to lead K2C’s growth at an exciting time: K2C recently received significant new funding for expansion, has a strong working partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), and continues to influence the broader Children’s Savings Account field it helped pioneer. This is an ideal role for someone with experience working with San Francisco communities, families and SFUSD; and a demonstrated commitment to helping young people succeed, particularly young people from low-income communities and communities of color. The ideal candidate will be outgoing; creative; flexible; tactful; collaborative; have a passion for increasing access to post-secondary education for all San Francisco students; and eager to grow professionally in a dynamic role helping lead K2C. Contact
us
for more information and apply
here
.
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Using Our Voice for Economic Justice
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Protecting Consumers
OFE is pursuing strategies to address the high levels of student loan debt burden and distress identified in our
research report
with the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisc
o. In November, the OFE co-hosted a student debt training for 50 financial coaches, credit counselors, and other practitioners, led by Juliana Fredman of Bay Area Legal Aid. And earlier this month, OFE's Jacob DuMez addressed municipal student debt at the Consumer Federation of America’s Financial Services Conference in Washington, DC.
As we head into the holidays, we celebrate several important state policy wins this year, including:
- AB 539 (Limon): establishes a rate cap on high-cost installment loans.
- SB 616 (Wieckowski): protects $1,724 against bank levy by debt collectors.
- SB 455 (Bradford): creates a “financial empowerment fund” which will provide up to $1M annually in grants to nonprofits.
- Expansion of the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which doubles the number of eligible low-income families.
- Increase in the asset limit for CalWORKS recipients from $2,500 to $10,000.
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Speaking Out About Debt Collection and Financial Wellbeing
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Counting the Cost of Financial Insecurity
Among families in San Francisco, 47%
—
more than two in five residents--are financially insecure, with less than $2,000 in savings. In some neighborhoods, more than 30 percent of our residents have delinquent debt, are struggling to meet their financial obligations and are in financial distress. Read Treasurer Cisneros’
post on this challenge to our residents and city budget
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About the Office of Financial Empowerment
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The Office of Financial Empowerment is a unique private-public partnership housed within the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector that convenes, innovates and advocates to strengthen economic security and mobility of low-income San Franciscans. For more than a decade, under the leadership of Treasurer José Cisneros, the OFE has engaged partners inside and outside City Hall to equip San Franciscans with knowledge, skills and resources to strengthen their financial health and well-being. At the same time, the Office has leveraged what has worked on the ground to model what is possible across the country.
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We have a
new website
. Let us know what you think! In the New Year, you'll see new resources for residents and peers.
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