With many graduates feeling the pressure of student debt, the city of Niagara Falls has found a solution to its own problems.
To improve the city’s struggling economy, Seth Piccirillo, Niagara Falls’ new director of community development, has proposed a plan offering to pay off the student loans of graduates who become residents of the city.
“College debt is at the forefront of so many stories you see now,” Piccirillo said. “The New York Times recently reported that student debt has topped $1 trillion; 94 percent of students now have some amount of debt.”
William Richards, a senior criminal justice major at Cal State Long Beach, was able to attend school without taking out loans for the first four years, but this year he will have to take out an $8,000 loan if he wants to graduate.
“If I were unable to find a job in California after graduation, I would definitely move to Niagara Falls,” Richards said. “It is very difficult for students to find jobs these days, especially in California, because it is so competitive.”
The plan will award graduates from two or four-year schools up to $3,500 a year for a maximum of two years.
Fifty years ago, Niagara Falls’ population was about 100,000 compared to 50,000 today. If the city is unable to boost its dwindling population, it will lose some forms of federal assistance, according to Piccirillo.
“We’ve lost a lot of talent, a lot of brain power,” Piccirillo said. “For 50 years we’ve been asking ourselves: how do we keep our young people?”
Alexis Zavala, a CSULB alumna, had to take out a $12,000 loan to make it through college. She currently makes monthly payments of $250.
“I think the plan that Niagara Falls is proposing is a great idea, because it benefits not only the students but the city as well,” Zavala said. “If this was available to me after I graduated I would have considered moving there. I was pretty broke.”
Like Niagara Falls, Kansas has a similar experiment in progress.
According to the Kansas Department of Commerce, 50 counties in Kansas have established Rural Opportunity Zones, which the state will offer income tax waivers for up to five years and/or student loan repayments of up to $15,000.
Manager of the Rural Opportunity Zones program Chris Harris said the idea is “to provide incentives for rural counties that have lost population over past decades.”
“Our hope was that we’d get young professionals to move,” Harris said. “Physicians, nurses, lawyers, accountants.”
The city of Niagara Falls is expected to approve their student debt relief plan this summer. To qualify, students will need to rent or buy a home in a designated downtown area in Niagara Falls.
The city is being funded with $200,000 by the Urban Renewal Agency Fund to pay the first 20 applicants.