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WHEREAS, there are significant disparities in race and ethnicity with respect to households that are unbanked or underbanked, and a lack of access to or use of banking services stands in the way of building wealth; and
WHEREAS, good credit is critical to building wealth, but statistics around credit scores and debt starkly reflect and perpetuate wealth disparities in the State, as a study of Newark by the Urban Institute found that while the median credit score in white areas was 615, the median credit score in areas that were predominantly nonwhite was 567, and, as of 2018, the share of people in communities of color in New Jersey with debt in collections was 37%, while the share of people in majority-white communities with debt in collections was 18%; and
WHEREAS, homeownership both reflects and contributes to a household’s wealth, but homeownership rates further reflect deeprooted disparities based on race and ethnicity in New Jersey and are the product of policies like redlining and restrictive covenants, as nearly 77% of white families in the State own their homes, while the same can be said for only 41% of Black families and 37% of Latino families; and
WHEREAS, entrenched disparities in the criminal justice system substantially limit the abilities of Black and Hispanic or Latino families and individuals to achieve financial success and build wealth, and as of 2016, Black people were incarcerated in New Jersey State prisons at a rate 12 times higher than white people, and Hispanic people were incarcerated at twice the rate of white people; and
WHEREAS, the possibility of racial and ethnic disparities, among other challenges, in New Jersey K-12 educational achievement and in obtaining college degrees potentially limit the ability to achieve future financial success; and
