This report highlights and evaluates the efficacy of various laws and policies aimed at helping owners of heirs property, a significant driver of land loss in communities of color.
This report provides background on the states’ role as student consumer protector and a brief history of the federal government’s fraught efforts to regulate state authorization for distance education. We call on policymakers to keep in mind the states’ role as student consumer protector in state authorization and reciprocity rulemaking, particularly with respect to distance…
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia (DC) currently cap interest rates and loan fees for at least some consumer installment loans, depending on the size of the loan. However, the caps vary greatly from state to state, and a few states do not cap interest rates at all.
Landlords in the United States almost always engage in some form of screening of rental applicants. This screening often involves reports or scores purchased from specialized tenant screening consumer reporting agencies (CRAs). The reports typically combine information about eviction filings, criminal records, and credit history. Often the reports include a score or recommendation based on these records, and in some cases, this score or recommendation is the only information conveyed to the landlord.
More than 27 million Americans do not have health insurance of any kind. A further 43% of non-elderly adults have inadequate insurance, which may have high deductibles or other significant out-of-pocket costs. In the meantime, health care costs and rates of medical debt continue to rise. It is more important than ever for states to…
While millions of homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments and were at risk of losing their homes to mortgage foreclosures during the COVID-19 pandemic, many others were facing another foreclosure crisis- the loss of their homes due to property tax lien foreclosures. This strict and often rapid tax lien foreclosure process has created a lesser…
As the demographics of the U.S. population change, so do the faces of homeownership. Since the housing crisis, federal regulators have taken significant strides to provide enhanced protections to mortgage borrowers to prevent harms that led to the crisis and to ensure that borrowers are offered home retention options when they face hardship. Despite this…
Read More about Barriers to Language Access in the Housing Market: Stories from the Field
This report follows up on an earlier study of foreclosure mediation programs prepared by the National Consumer Law Center in 2009. Our 2009 report recommended program designs and best practices for mediation programs. Recommendations from the report have since been adopted in a number of states. The report raised some questions about the lack of…
Disproportionately high burdens connected with utility infrastructure and operations fall on environmental justice populations, which are formally defined by Massachusetts law. Yet the status quo provides environmental justice populations and affected communities few or no meaningful opportunities to participate in DPU and EFSB proceedings, where most utility infrastructure and operations decisions are made. Few agency…
Many consumers charge medical bills to credit cards. Some consumers end up using specialized medical credit cards to pay health care expenses, especially for expenses generally not covered by health insurance such as dental or vision care. This report discusses these medical credit cards in depth, beginning with a brief background section and then presenting…
Read More about Health Care Plastic: The Risks of Medical Credit Cards
Equal access to quality education is fundamental to American society. This general principle has very practical implications. Studies consistently show that education is one of the most important indicators of economic status in our society. Education after high school is more than just a fulfilling experience; it is often the difference between basic financial independence…
As the cost of financing our nation’s higher education system falls increasingly on students and families, student loan debt is rising at alarming rates. Most borrowers have to make some sacrifices to repay student loans. The problem, as discussed and documented in this paper, is the extent of these sacrifices. Many student loan borrowers face…
Read More about No Way Out: Student Loans, Financial Distress, and the Need for Policy Reform
