Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Marcia Fudge said student debt was a major contributor to disproportionately low home ownership rates among black Americans.
“Who has student debts? Poor people, blacks, browns. We are the people who bear the most debt, ”said Fudge Axios in an interview that aired on Saturday. “The system is already distorted that we are not creditworthy.”
U.S. House Representative and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge testifies during a hearing before the Senate Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee and Allied Agencies at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on June 10, 2021. The subcommittee held the hearing to review President Joe Biden’s 2022 budget application for HUD. (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)
A recent report published by EducationData.org found that black college graduates had more debt than white graduates and were more likely to get into financial trouble as a result.
“Black and African American college graduates owe an average of $ 25,000 more in student loans than white college graduates,” and “48% of black college students owe an average of 12.5% more than they borrowed,” according to the report four years after graduation.
A June 2020 study by Redfin, a real estate agency, found that only “44% of black families own the house they live in during Q1 2020”. This compares to 73.7% for white families.
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced in a press release Friday that it would change the monthly student loan payment calculations to “remove barriers and provide more access to affordable FHA-insured single-family mortgage finance for creditworthy individuals with student loan debt People of Color. “
Fudge said these changes will enable people to become skilled homebuyers even if they have college debts that would otherwise be a barrier. “The person, let’s say, makes about $ 50,000 a year. If they want to buy a house, maybe $ 200,000 or this ballpark, they have $ 75,000 worth of student debt, they don’t qualify, ”Fudge said. “We’re going to qualify the same person.”
For millions of Americans, student loan debt has become an impossible burden.
And that’s a burden that hits black borrowers particularly hard.
President Biden can #CancelStudentDebt and help fill this racial wealth gap. https://t.co/RofiYUpdAn
– Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 21, 2021
She added that after the adjustments, that person would qualify at a price that would allow them to go into a house with some equity, but also be anchored in that house in a way that they can afford to be in this one Stay home.
Fudge also said that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 is not being enforced as intended and that this is contributing to disproportionately low home ownership rates among black Americans. The law prohibits housing discrimination based on “race, color, national origin, religion, gender, marital status and disability”.
Despite the law, black Americans still face several difficulties in the home ownership process. For example, the Indianapolis Star reported in May that a black woman’s home rose $ 149,000 when a white friend stood in for her in a valuation. In 2020, Business Insider reported that black families, on average, pay about $ 60,000 more in home ownership costs than white families.
insider Ayelet Sheffey reported that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and at least 36 different civil rights organizations are urging the Biden-Harris administration to eliminate $ 50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.
“Student debt relief will help black and brown borrowers build wealth and allow our economies to thrive as millions of Americans are able to raise families, buy houses and start small businesses,” said a press release the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Repeating these feelings, Fudge said to Axios, “For people of color, especially blacks, owning a home is wealth. For us this is not just wealth, but generational wealth. “
Have you subscribed theGrios Podcast “Dear culture”? Download our latest episodes now!
TheGrio is now available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/marcia-fudge-says-student-loan-debt-is-limiting-black-homeownership/
No comments:
Post a Comment