This research explores whether and how our debt-driven higher education system makes it difficult for students to finish a college program or degree. Reporting original survey data, Debt, Doubt, and Dreams: Understanding the Latino College Completion Gap specifically considers the … Continued

Student loan default is largely a symptom of institutional, student, and socioeconomic factors that interact and reinforce each other as students pass through the educational system. Thus, the problem of student loan default is unlikely to be solved at the … Continued

Recent estimates suggest that more than half (54%) of young adults who attend college take on some form of debt in order to do so. Student loans represent the most common type of debt incurred and are relied on by … Continued

Inequality is back on the national agenda. Over the past decade, the growing gap between the haves and have-nots in health, economic opportunity, educational outcomes, and other areas has taken on greater urgency among advocates, researchers, and policymakers. While groups … Continued

A growing number of digital tools exist today to enable and support financial coaching and counseling. We evaluate a selection of these tools to see how they are changing nonprofit organizations’ capacity to provide these critical services. Financial coaching and … Continued

“To fully integrate into American society and achieve economic security, immigrants need access to high-quality affordable financial products, including small dollar loans that serve as an entryway to credit. Unfortunately, immigrants to the U.S. face many barriers in accessing safe … Continued

Does the use of credit checks negatively affect lower-income job applicants, and if so, what policies and practices can mitigate this impact?   Research indicates that nearly half of employers check an applicant’s credit history when hiring. This indicator raises … Continued

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts related to our work around housing and opportunity. To learn more about this project, check out the first blog post, the second blog post, the third blog post, the full report, the Executive … Continued

This Executive Summary provides an overview of the findings and recommendations in the full report called Housing & Financial Capabilities: Integrating and Enhancing Services for Residents. The UNC Center for Community Capital (CCC) partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMC) to … Continued

This report identifies effective practices, locates shared challenges, and isolates key considerations for organizations seeking to engage in the work of integrating financial capability services into their existing housing work. Many housing providers are expanding beyond their traditional roles in … Continued