Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory is urging the federal government to offer student debt forgiveness as an incentive to convince young people to move into blighted or high poverty areas of the city.
His resolution making that appeal passed with no opposition during Thursday night’s City Council meeting.
Gregory says poverty-riddled neighborhoods in the city would benefit by offering students loan forgiveness and deferrals to move in.
"We’re going to help them out with their loan and debt situation, and we’re going to help different communities out with a sound population in various disciplines that education brings to a community," Gregory said.
Gregory says the idea isn’t based on any national model, but came to him as he examined how to make a dent in the projected $3.1 trillion dollars in college loan debt that’s been racked up by students nationally.
His plan would use census track data to identify neighborhoods with high levels of blight, crime, and other key factors, then identify those living there who would be eligible for such a program.
"This would be really good for the Northeast part of the city, the East side, Southbridge, West Center City and some parts of Hilltop – it would be an excellent program," he said.
He adds the program could also be used as an incentive for current residents in the same areas to pursue a college education before returning to their home neighborhood.
“Folk are inundated with debt. This is an effort to relieve them of some of that debt either temporarily or permanently. But the other thing from an urban community standpoint – hopefully by going into some of the census tracks that have blight and crime and other negatives, we can get folk in there to assist in bringing the community back because they would actually be living there,” Gregory said.
Gregory says the loan forgiveness and deferment could be modeled after already-existing programs for individuals working in certain public and non-profit sectors.
Next steps include drafting a formal proposal of the plan to send to Delaware’s Congressional delegation, encouraging them to help write the plan into law.
