For many people like Modupe Idris, 36, achieving the American dream seems out of reach. Buying a home with a white-picket fence and walking a dog with her husband and newborn baby feels unlikely with the high cost of living in the nation’s capital, she said.
“It’s hard out here. It’s not easy. Once I found out I was pregnant, I applied for WIC,” Idris, who moved from Southeast to Oxon Hill, told The Informer.
Although she wants to move back to the District, the mother hopes to find a place where she can afford to raise a family.
Idris explained though she is technically middle class and her husband is a contracted electrician, it doesn’t feel like it. At any moment, she said, she could be on the brink of homelessness like many residents in the D.C. area who are feeling the brunt of high inflation.
“Middle class feels like lower class, honestly; I feel like we are one paycheck or one bad situation, or one furlough away from living in the tents in D.C.,” she said while petting her cooing baby.
Idris was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and moved to the U.S. at six years old in 1995. She had a fervent desire to carve a career in nursing when she enrolled at Norfolk State University. However, her academic pursuits were paused when she traveled to the Middle East in 2011 for work and to gain life experience.
After returning from the Middle East in 2018, Idris started working for the federal government. However, even now, she said she feels the cost of living is too high and the government is asking for so much, but providing little.
“The economy is just not giving what it’s supposed to give,” she said.
Idris has been following politics closely and referenced Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic plan if she wins the White House this November, explaining that it proposes a $6,000 tax credit for those with newborn children.
“[It isn’t] going to do everything, but it’ll do enough, especially for a family like mine,” Idris said.
Maintaining Housing, Barriers to Building Wealth in America
The mom said she’s constantly seeing “new real estate properties” being built and wonders who they are putting in these houses.
She also said she wonders: “Who can afford to buy [those properties] because it’s not the average American?”
The number of metro areas with a trillion-dollar valuation has increased to eight compared to four last year. On that list are Washington, D.C., Anaheim, California, Chicago, Illinois and Phoenix, Arizona, which have been added to the group of cities where the combined value of homes exceeds $1 trillion, according to Redfin News.
The struggle to maintain rent is a challenge for Idris because the payment system in America differs from that of Africa. Idris said certain parts of Africa allow renters to pay their rent once a year or every six months, whereas in America, it’s every month. A potential change is on the horizon for Abuja, Nigeria, as it considers replacing its existing monthly rental payment system with a monthly payment structure.
A report examining Black Americans’ financial hopes and perceived barriers showed that “high inflation, not having enough money to start investing, and high interest rates were the most frequently cited barriers.” The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and NORC at the University of Chicago partnered to conduct this study.
Additionally, the report revealed a concern regarding their primary economic obstacles, such as high inflation, high interest rates and a scarcity of investment capital.
Funds to invest in building wealth prove to be difficult and untimely, according to Idris, who said, “I’m not going to be able to retire or start collecting my Social Security until I’m 67 years old.”
She said if she purchased a house now, it would require 30 years to repay the mortgage completely, which wouldn’t benefit her son.
“What generational wealth do I have to leave my child? It’s not like I can buy property and say, ‘Okay, I’m going to buy another one so I can have something for rental purposes,'” Idris added.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, argues in his report, “The Best Black Economy in Generations — Why It Isn’t Enough,” that more work needs to be done to address the financial barriers plaguing Black Americans. He explains that investigations reveal “that despite record-breaking economic numbers, African Americans are still mired in great economic insecurity.”
Algernon Austin, director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic Policy and Research and co-author of the report, said the government must take swift action to address the root causes of African American economic insecurity. This cause, among others, as Idris faces, is the high cost of housing.
Despite economic challenges and the difficulty of homeownership, Idris has devised a plan to achieve a comfortable lifestyle and is enrolled in IT courses, which she sees as an investment.
“It’s not like I’m not taking [classes] because it’s a passion of mine; it’s just kind of where the money is right now,” she said.