Research

The student debt crisis has been building for decades, and millions of families have seen their dreams derailed by unaffordable debt repayment burdens that block their path to financial stability. As college costs rose, students had to take on increasing amounts of debt to pay for higher education. At the same time, state student financial aid offerings were drastically reduced, forcing students and families into long term debt that often grew to be unaffordable over time. Due to longstanding discrimination, students and families of color have less personal, family, and intergenerational...

New polling data shows that Rhode Island voters across all political parties are broadly supportive of consumer protections to lower the maximum annual interest rate for payday loans in the state.

Earned or Early Wage Access (EWA) products offer workers access to their wages before payday, usually for a fee. While low-wage workers can benefit from EWA programs that are properly designed and regulated, they can instead be harmed when products are allowed into the marketplace without guardrails keeping their use and cost within reasonable bounds. States should regulate all EWA products as credit and require compliance with consumer protections that prevent predatory lending debt traps commonly associated with payday loans.

On October 28, 2021, the Center for Responsible Lending and the United Negro College Fund hosted a virtual discussion highlighting how the COVID-19 crisis has affected Black students nationwide due to our nation’s ongoing systemic racism. The talk highlighted new findings that reveal how the experiences of Black student loan borrowers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) differ from the experiences of their Black peers at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Panelists drove home the need for $50,000 in across-the-board student loan cancellation and increased HBCU...

This proposal for a national Down Payment Assistance (DPA) program was developed by the Center for Responsible Lending and the National Fair Housing Alliance from the perspective of providing the U.S. Congress with a framework for establishing a Targeted Downpayment Assistance Program to close the wealth and homeownership gaps. However, the elements of this proposal can be adapted for use by state and local governments as well as other entities that wish to establish a program that will advance equitable outcomes. According to the 2019 American Community Survey, homeownership among Black...

Saving for a mortgage down payment is a significant barrier to homeownership that particularly hits communities of color. We calculate how long it would take for a typical renter household to save for a mortgage down payment and closing costs for a median-priced house (“Years to Save”) and further disaggregate these calculations by race/ethnicity, household type, location, and occupation. We also discuss the impact of student loan borrowing on wealth and liquid savings for young households that have attained at least a bachelor’s degree and the likely impact on Years to Save of repaying...

Key points from the poll results include: Download a one-page summary of the results. As a result of the COVID 19 crisis, payments have been paused for federal student loan borrowers nationwide until at least September 2021 Almost one in three 28 Minnesota borrowers are not confident that they will be able to resume payments on their student loans when they need to. Three quarters of MN student loan borrowers report that their student loans cause them stress Additionally, more than half of borrowers 59 report they would have trouble paying for an unexpected expense or are already falling...

“Oportun,” is almost a translation of the Spanish word for “opportunity,” but is a few letters shy of the full word: oportunidad. Unfortunately, Oportun’s practices leave people questioning just how much financial opportunity consumers receive as a result of using these products. “Partner with us today to build a better tomorrow.” “We’re committed to our community.” These messages and other similar ones, placed prominently throughout the Oportun website, could lead a consumer in the community to believe that this lender had their best interests in mind. Oportun’s designation as a Community...

Even before COVID-19, student loan borrowers struggled under the weight of more than $1.6 trillion in debt. One in four borrowers was in default or serious delinquency, and many worried about their ability to make student loan payments while covering other basic needs. Because of decades of structural inequities and discrimination, student loans have burdened Black and Latino borrowers more than other groups, and now these borrowers of color are also among those disproportionately harmed by COVID-19. Millions of lives were already stymied by student loan debt before the public health crisis...

Over 800,000 self-employed people were behind on their student debt before the pandemic and may be ineligible or have the perception that they are ineligible for the relief they need to survive in a faltering economy. Because of structural inequities including racial wealth disparities, ongoing discrimination in the labor market, and inadequate funding for colleges that well serve higher numbers of students of color, Black borrowers and other borrowers of color carry more student debt and they have more difficulty paying it off. Acknowledgements: The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL)...