The New Jersey Community Loan Fund (FUND) has asked Project Community to help identify counties and populations where commercial lending might be targeted. This report identifies the needs, strengths, and opportunities among populations in distressed counties in New Jersey. Project Community has framed this goal into two steps1. The first section looks at social and demographic variables to identify distressed areas. Comparisons are made among the twenty-one New Jersey counties and for three Commuting Zones, areas defined by the Department of Agriculture based on employment patterns in the state. This section also includes an analysis of New Jersey Department of Labor employment projections for the period 1990 to 2005. We conclude the analysis by identifying nine counties that are most distressed. Although these areas face many challenges, they also present opportunities. As requested by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CED) and FUND, the second section examines eight individual counties, all of which were found to be among the most distressed, to uncover their particular characteristics and strengths and to reveal these opportunities to the FUND.
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