Appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Marcia Fudge said one major problem that needs to be addressed about housing equity is student loan debt.
As explained by Axios on HBO, Black homeownership rates have gone down while other races have seen better results.
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“Part of our problem is that we have never totally enforced the Fair Housing Act,” Fudge answered. “That is why we are doing things like homeownership assistance, why we’re addressing the student loan issue, why we’re looking at how credit is distributed. For people of color, especially Black people, homeownership is wealth. It is not only wealth to us, but it is generational wealth.”“Who has student debt? Poor people, Black people, brown people,” Fudge added. “We’re the people who carry most debt. And so the system’s already skewed toward us not being creditworthy.”
A report from The Hill
shows that 1,000 people surveyed said that student loans affect their spending habits, especially in making riskier choices like buying a home.Thirty-five percent of students, regardless of race, who are in debt have stopped repaying their loans, while the remaining 64 percent have lowered their payments.
One of the president’s campaign promises is forgiving $10,000 of people’s loans. Poll results show some are confident he will deliver on it (44.8 percent), some are under the impression the promise will not be kept (31.8 percent), and some are indifferent or unsure what to believe (23.4 percent).
As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, homeownership is surging among all millennials, including Black millennials. Bia lack people owning homes grew to 47 percent in the second quarter of 2020. The first quarter was 44 percent.
However, there is a homeowner rate gap between 20 percent and 30 percent amongst Black and White people that has persisted for more than 100 years.