The payment moratorium has touched the lives of many Americans, but it has perhaps meant the most to the group who stood the most to gain from it — Black women.
The payment moratorium has touched the lives of many Americans, but it has perhaps meant the most to the group who stood the most to gain from it - Black women, like Jackson, who shoulder a disproportionate share of the $1.7 trillion student debt burden. Everything changed when the pandemic forced people to shelter in place. Omenyi decided to move in with her parents in Ellicott City, Md., when her job in North Carolina went remote and her lease was up. Sharing a house with mom and dad meant she could pocket the money that would have gone to rent, and couple the savings with the money that would have gone to repaying her student loans.
The pandemic struck a few months after Brown, 34, earned a PhD in college student affairs administration from the University of Georgia. Federal student loan borrowers typically have six months before they begin repaying their debt. But the pandemic payment freeze turned that grace period into a two-year stretch for Brown, who owes roughly $31,000.
Still, a National Association of Realtors study found homeownership rates for Black Americans, at 43.4% in 2020, lagged other racial groups and was actually lower than the prior decade. Researchers attribute the gap, in part, to a decline in housing affordability and hefty student debt held by Black Americans making it difficult to save.
Add to those challenges the propensity for providing financial support to extended family, and the economic promise of college credentials can wane for Black women. Army veteran Alphi Coleman, 38, can relate. The stress of working unfulfilling jobs to get ahead was wearing her down before the pandemic.
"I don't want to step back into the corporate nine-to-five and try to fit into that culture," Coleman said. "I would love to . . . create enough financial security to thrive."The $152,000 in student debt that Crystal Elliott-O'Connor, 53, owes had made it nearly impossible to set aside any money. The suspension of payments changed that.