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Women in Cook County’s communities of color file bankruptcy at disproportionately high rates, finds new report
Bankruptcy filers in African-American neighborhoods choose potentially risky Chapter 13 more often than filers in white communities
Women in Cook County’s African-American neighborhoods file for bankruptcy at a disproportionately high rate, a new report from Woodstock Institute found. The report also found that bankruptcy filers in African-American communities are far more likely to choose Chapter 13 bankruptcy over Chapter 7, a trend that may indicate limited economic benefits of the bankruptcy process to filers in these communities.
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Read the report
One woman in bankruptcy tells her story
It’s hard to feel lonely in Roxie King’s house. The walls are packed with row upon row of pictures of Roxie’s parents, two children, twenty grandchildren, and other loved ones celebrating various stages in life. On a recent visit, Roxie proudly showed Woodstock friend Bobbi Ball of Partners In Community Building, Inc. and me around her clean and cozy ranch-style home of 37 years near Midway Airport. Given her good cheer, it was hard to believe that, just last year, she was at risk of losing this home.
When Roxie was laid off from her job as an echocardiogram technician at a hospital, her finances came under significant strain.
“I was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Roxie said. “Somebody’s going to come up short.”
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In response to pressure from a customer backed by consumer and disability rights advocates, Chase Bank announced on May 13 that it would not impose its $12 monthly fee on basic checking account customers with direct deposits of at least $500 per month in aggregate from Social Security payments. This change could save customers with disabilities millions of dollars a year. 
