This 27-year-old will graduate with $90,000 in student loans
Benjamin Krysiek on how being a student—or a person with disabilities—can affect finding affordable living
Over the past several months, our community listening team has spoken with more than 220 people from across the metro to learn more about their personal cost of living challenges. This series, written by Jewel Wicker, looks through the lens of their lived experiences in order to better understand how systemic issues—like healthcare access, housing costs, and student loan debt—impact Atlantans every day. Here, meet Benjamin, from Grayson. ↓
A student working toward his occupational therapy doctorate at Georgia State University, Benjamin Krysiek knows how hard it can be for people with disabilities to find affordable housing. In addition to the home health care that’s a part of his fieldwork, Krysiek volunteers with the spinal cord injury team at the Shepherd Center, teaches neurodiverse people how to rock-climb at Stone Summit Climbing, and works in Clarkston with refugees who have significant disabilities.
“I get to see how the cost of living impacts these very medically fragile individuals who are already paying, frankly, a shitload of money to take care of just their basic needs,” Krysiek says. Finding housing can be even more difficult if the person needs accessible public transportation: “I may sound pessimistic, but this is the reality that these people face, and I don’t think it’s correct to try to sugarcoat it.”
“I get to see how the cost of living impacts these very medically fragile individuals who are already paying, frankly, a shitload of money to take care of just their basic needs."
Because of this, the 27-year-old often feels guilty complaining about his own financial concerns. Krysiek was born and raised in Grayson, a small town in Gwinnett County where he currently lives with his parents. He describes them as “wealthy”; they paid for his undergraduate degree and don’t charge him rent since he isn’t paid a salary as a grad student and can’t afford to live independently currently. Despite these advantages, he estimates, he’ll have amassed $90,000 in student loans once he finishes his degree in a year and a half.
Krysiek credits his year teaching English in Nagasaki, Japan—the only place he’s ever lived besides Georgia—with sparking his passion for helping others. Having majored in linguistics as an undergraduate, Krysiek originally thought he’d study speech therapy in graduate school.
While Krysiek says his salary in Japan would’ve been considered “low” in the U.S., the cost of living was cheaper, and the government covered a majority of his health insurance thanks to his participation in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. “Having health insurance and not having to worry about paying a huge fee for it was incredibly nice,” he says.
Back in the U.S., of course, healthcare is more expensive—and the logistics of obtaining it can be challenging. He receives health insurance through Georgia State University and pays for it using his student loans. As a gay man, Krysiek takes PREP—a prescription drug, short for pre-exposure prophylaxis, that prevents HIV infection. When we speak, though, he’s lost his bottle of medication and hasn’t been able to get his insurance to cover a replacement. “I would have to pay out of pocket $1,500 or go into Atlanta and find a free health clinic,” he says.
While Krysiek says his salary in Japan would’ve been considered “low” in the U.S., the cost of living was cheaper, and the government covered a majority of his health insurance thanks to his participation in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. “Having health insurance and not having to worry about paying a huge fee for it was incredibly nice,” he says.
Once he graduates, Krysiek feels confident he’ll be able to get an apartment—several employment websites list the average salary of occupational therapists in Atlanta as at least $85,000—though he thinks he still might need a roommate. (A recent report from Apartmentlist.com says the average rent in Atlanta is just under $1,500 for a one-bedroom apartment.) He’s not in a rush to own a home but, even if he was, he’s convinced that won’t happen until later in his life, or that he’ll have to move an hour outside of the city to find something affordable.
Krysiek repeats over and over again how grateful he is that his parents have helped him financially in his adult life, including paying for his undergraduate degree. Still, that doesn’t stop him from seeing the parents of some of his classmates who are currently paying for their adult children’s apartments and graduate degrees and wishing he could have the same luxuries. “I wish my parents would but at the same time I have to grow up, right?”