Senior Fellow Jennifer Wheary discusses how gaps in homeownership and equity levels are due to serious flaws in the opportunity infrastructure — namely lending practices that create barriers for African-Americans and Latinos who want to buy homes.
The HUD report says race-based discrimination makes up nearly 40 percent of housing complaints. Housing discrimination in any form is unacceptable. But continuing discrimination with regard to race could cost the country its future.
The report notes: "What distinguishes low- and middle-income households with relatively high levels of credit card debt from those with lower levels of debt is chance and misfortune."
"Elections are the backbone of democracy, and New Yorkers should be able to have faith that the people who run our elections are able to fairly and fully apply the law," said Scott Novakowski, program associate in the Democracy Program at Demos. "This report proves that voters are not only misinformed about their eligibility, they are subject to unnecessary, burdensome and illegal documentation requirements for voter registration.
The problem, according to all three books, is that for today's young adults, those lean early years -- the Top Ramen phase -- may never give way to the stability and prosperity enjoyed by their boomer parents. A number of factors are blamed, chief among them student loans, credit cards, wage stagnation, the rising costs of health care and home ownership, the disappearance of pensions and the likely collapse of Social Security under the weight of all those retiring boomers.
New York, NY — Many of New York's local boards of election are systematically and illegally preventing thousands of eligible New Yorkers from registering to vote, according to a new study released by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Demos.
According to a riveting study by a pair of national not-for-profit, nonpartisan organizations, about one-third of all U.S. households categorized as low-income or middle-income are racking up credit card debt to pay for basic living expenses.
Michael Lipsky and Dianne Stewart, Senior Program Director and Director of Public Works at Demos, call for nonprofit groups to lead an effort restore widespread appreciation of the critical role of government as a protector of public values and as a place where Americans come together to solve our most pressing problems.
New York, NY — Today, Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy organization that studies economic security issues in the United States, announced the launch of the new Around the Kitchen Table online. Published at www.aroundthekitchentable.org, this monthly news journal offers commentary, analysis and fresh perspectives on how national economic trends in debt, assets, education and income play out around the kitchen tables of individuals and families in America.
New York, NY — Today, Demos, a national election reform and voting rights organization, issued the following statement condemning the passage of new restrictive voter ID requirements in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue have already signed the bills, while the bills in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania will arrive at their governors' desks next week.
And much of that debt has been accrued covering everyday items. Seven out of 10 households reported using their credit cards to pay for car repairs, basic living expenses or house repairs, in effect using debt as their "safety net," according to that same study. One out of three families reported using credit cards to cover basic living expenses for on average four of the last 12 months.
Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell University, for instance, found that in counties with the widest income gaps, rates of personal bankruptcy and divorce rates were higher than average.
New York, NY — Today marks the release of a groundbreaking new book; STRAPPED: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead (Doubleday; On-Sale January 17, 2006), written by Tamara Draut, Economic Opportunity Director at Demos.
Draut argues that "with the possible exception of having a larger array of entertainment and other goods to purchase, members of Generation X appear to be worse off by every measure" than prior generations.
Boston, MA — A Poll commissioned by the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) revealed overwhelming support for election campaign spending limits as a way of improving the fairness, honesty and integrity of elections.
According to the advocacy group Demos, the average balance among lower- and middle-income households is $8,650.
"World News Tonight's" special series "Credit Crunch" aims to help you get on the road to becoming debt free.
A fraudulent appraisal "can lead homeowners to borrow more money than their homes are worth, putting themselves at risk of being 'upside down' in a home -- e.g. not being able to sell for a high enough price to pay off their mortgage," according to a briefing paper on appraisal fraud put out by Demos, a New York-based think tank.
Americans owe $800 billion in credit card debt, more than triple the amount from 1989, and a 31 percent increase from five years ago, according to a recent report, "The Plastic Safety Net," by the Center for Responsible Lending, and Demos, a research group based in New York.
The study found that a third of low- and middle-income American households used credit cards for basic expenses - rent, groceries and utilities - in any 4 of the last 12 months.
Those with the worst credit card debt were people ages 50 to 64, who owed $9,124
A major survey released by the think tank Demos provides some important new insights on how average American families are using credit cards.
The implication is hard to escape: many middle- and low-income American families are using consumer credit as a way to weather fluctuations in their finances.
Demos, a non-partisan election reform group, said higher voter turnout, especially among youth, reversed a decades-old trend of low electoral participation. The group said about 120 million voted in the Nov. 2 election, an increase of 15 million voters from 2000.
Election Day registration, or EDR, makes it possible for new voters, the recently relocated and those whose registrations were incomplete or lost, to participate without unnecessary hurdles, the group said.
That all portends "payment shock" for those with adjustable-rate mortgages whose loans are due soon to adjust, said Javier Silva, senior research and policy associate with the public policy research group Demos in New York City. "Lots of ARM customers are experiencing payment shock already, and we're only see the first wave of adjustments upward," Silva said. "People didn't understand how much their interest rate could rise, or were unprepared for it. I'm not surprised that we're seeing rising foreclosures.