Affordability Crisis Pushes MAF Clients Further Behind

Millions of households across the country are grappling with higher prices at the grocery store, the gas pump, and in the housing market. In May of this year, the U.S. annual inflation rate reached its highest level in three years, placing renewed financial pressure on families already struggling to make ends meet.

Inflation affects everyone, but not everyone experiences it equally. Savings, appreciating assets, and wages that keep pace with rising prices help cushion the impact for many households. But low-income families often lack those buffers and access to affordable financial products designed to meet their needs. As a result, rising costs place a disproportionate burden on households with the fewest resources. 

Despite the grave impact on their financial lives, the experiences of low-income families are often missing from the broader conversation about inflation. Understanding how rising costs are affecting their lives is essential for identifying the kinds of support families need to move forward. 

Over the next three blog posts, we will explore that reality by analyzing a significant subset of MAF Lending Circle client records, revealing both the challenges families face and the strategies they use to navigate them.

The Data Behind This Series

In 2008, MAF launched Lending Circles, offering zero-interest, credit-building loans through community-based peer lending groups. Designed for low-income and immigrant families who are often excluded from the mainstream financial system, Lending Circles provides a safe alternative to high-cost debt while helping participants build the credit history they need to pursue long-term goals, such as starting a business, buying a home, or purchasing a car.

Although Lending Circles was designed to meet the needs of families who face the greatest barriers to affordable credit, its benefits extend far beyond any one group. By designing for those at the margins, MAF created a financial product that serves people across a range of racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Over the years, MAF has accumulated a wealth of client data that sheds light on how families navigate an increasingly challenging economy. This blog series draws on Lending Circles application data collected between 2016 and 2024 to explore those experiences. 

Lending Circles at a Glance 

Cumulative program statistics, 2008 through 2026:

Sample Characteristics

The analyses in Earning More, Affording Less and Falling Behind the Neighborhood are based on a subset of 11,220 Lending Circles applications submitted between 2016 and 2024. The analysis in the final blog of the series, Finding a Way Forward, draws on a subset of 6,390 applicants who completed an entry survey in addition to the application.

Across both samples, the demographic profile of Lending Circles applicants has remained remarkably stable. Household income distributions, as well as applicants’ gender, geographic distribution, household size, race, and immigration status, have remained largely unchanged. The following figures describe the full sample of 11,220 Lending Circles applicants.

2

Median Household Size

$43,200

Median Household Income

66%

Reside in California

63%

Female Applicants

37

Median Applicant Age

A Consistent Population Across Years

While we intentionally control for demographic characteristics in our analyses to ensure that the patterns we observe are driven by genuine changes in the lives of the families applying to MAF’s Lending Circles program, we see that the breakdown of these characteristics is relatively stable over time.

What’s Next 

The families MAF serves have been living through an affordability crisis for far longer than the past few months. Over the next three blog posts, we’ll examine how financial pressures have evolved over the past decade and why low-income households are especially vulnerable to rising costs. Together, these stories show how long-standing economic disparities have made today’s affordability crisis particularly difficult for the families MAF serves.

In Earning More, Affording Less, we show how inflation has erased a decade of wage gains. In Falling Behind the Neighborhood, we examine how the gap between our clients and their local communities has widened even as their incomes have grown. Finally, in Finding a Way Forward, we explore how families are responding by working, building businesses, leaning on one another, and holding on to hope.

Follow along as we share what a decade of data tells us about the families we serve. Start the series by reading Earning More, Affording Less.

Data source: MAF Lending Circles applicant records, 2016–2024. Questions about our data or methodology? Please reach out via our contact form.