Luis Estevez’s research while affiliated with Texas A&M University and other places


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Publications (1)


Microlending for housing in the United States. A case study in colonias in Texas
  • Article

April 2011

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79 Reads

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18 Citations

Habitat International

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Luis Estevez

Applying the concept of microlending to housing is gaining momentum as a practical alternative for those who are on the margin of mainstream financial services. Microlending has been widely researched in the context of developing countries, but less is known about how – and if – it works on marginalized groups in developed countries, specifically in relation to housing. Using the case of South Texas colonias, this paper explores a microlending program for home improvements and its capacity to impact the local economy. Basic data comes from the Nuestra Casa lending program database (609 clients) and from face to face interviews with a randomly selected sample of 138 clients. Our findings show that this program targets and serves clients from the unbanked population, who do not have access to other lending alternatives; further, 70% of the current clients are living below the poverty threshold; defaults rates are found to be low, indicating a capacity to pay loans based on income-to-debt instead of loan-to-debt ratios; and finally, it positively impacts the local economy, since labor and materials necessary to implement the improvements, are purchased locally. These findings should give us policy guidelines to evaluate lending programs that attached to local economies and are suited to serve the target populations.

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Citations (1)


... The region is also largely undereducated, with 35% of the population having an educational attainment level equivalent to or less than eight years (US Census 2019; Reininger et al. 2015). These socioeconomic disparities have been central to policy research on South Texas and highlight the urban and rural divide and colonias (unincorporated settlements) (Durst and Wegmann 2017;Giusti and Estevez 2011;Sullivan and Olmedo 2014;Ward 1999). While Latino urbanism provides a much-needed theoretical and practical approach to community development and planning for understanding how socioeconomic and political change affects the functioning of cities with large Latino populations, the bridge between the urban and rural divide is largely undertheorized (Sandoval and Maldonado 2012). ...

Reference:

Advancing Latino engagement methodologies in urban planning: Utilizing pláticas for local economic developmentPotenciando las metodologías para fomentar la participación latina en la planificación urbana: El uso de las pláticas en el desarrollo económico local
Microlending for housing in the United States. A case study in colonias in Texas
  • Citing Article
  • April 2011

Habitat International