Selling the poor, doing injustice

It’s been almost a year since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released their preliminary proposal to regulate payday and other small-dollar lending, and still consumers have no federal protections against predatory small dollar lending. So why hasn’t the CFPB taken action yet? One of the biggest factors has been the continuous and intense pushback from the payday lending industry — and Congress. While attacks on the Bureau by the industry and members of Congress are nothing new, what is new is that these attacks have recently started to come from both sides of the aisle. Even more surprising, members like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, are now working to block the CFPB from protecting consumers against predatory payday lending. The efforts by the chairwoman and a majority of the Florida congressional delegation have coalesced around H.R. 4018, the "Consumer Protection and Choice Act," which would not only delay the CFPB payday rules by two years, it would also endorse Florida’s debt trap payday model — which strips $280 million from lower-income Floridians — as a nationally recognized and federally exempted model for other states to implement. Consumers have waited long enough for the CFPB to act, and they’ve lost billions of their hard-earned cash in the process. Congress should not make them wait any longer and should let the CFPB finish the job it started. Tell Congress to reject this damaging bill: Got 1 Minute? Send a Tweet in support of the CFPB’s efforts (and tag your Representative so he or she gets the message!): Payday lending strips billions from financially vulnerable consumers each yr. Congress should let the @CFBP do its job to #StopTheDebtTrap. [Click here to tweet] We need strong a @CFPB rule to protect against predatory payday lenders taking advantage of consumers. #ConsumersCantWait #StopTheDebtTrap [Click here to tweet] 250+ groups oppose HR4018, which would limit the @CFPB's ability to protect consumers from #payday lending: www.bit.ly/1RoyIiY [Click here to Tweet] Got 3 Minutes? Call your U.S. Representative and tell them to reject this damaging bill: Call 202.224.3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative's office. If you don't know who your Representative is, find out here. Once you're connected, here's what to say: My name is [your name] from [your organization or coalition], and I’m calling to request that you oppose H.R. 4018, as well as any effort to weaken the CFPB’s ability to protect consumers against predatory payday lending practices. This bill would codify a number of payday industry-backed practices and recognize Florida’s industry-backed payday lending model — which strips $280 million from lower-income Floridians — as one that other states should follow. H.R. 4018 would harm consumers across the country and would undermine the CFPB’s ability rein in an industry that thrives on stripping financially vulnerable borrowers of their hard-earned money and trapping them in a cycle of long-term debt. Thank you for everything that you do on behalf of consumers everywhere. Sincerely, Corporation for Enterprise Development The Assets &Opportunity Network team   CFED - Corporation for Enterprise Development   1200 G Street, NW Suite 400   Washington, DC 20005   202.408.9788

 

2014 and disciplined thought

Again in 2014, I'll attempt to post something sensible on an almost daily basis. 

Confession:  I do this mainly for my own benefit.

I try to read as widely as I have the time on a daily basis.  Admittedly, much of what I read connects to my work and concerns related to poverty, economics, neighborhood revitalization and life in hard, inner city neighborhoods and communities here in Dallas and across the nation. 

There is something about the plan, the need, the compulsion to write daily that keeps me focused and as "on track" as I can remain.  I find that when I fail to write, I feel scattered, dislocated and without clarity or discipline. 

So, I write to work and to stay at thoughts having to do with life and poverty and faith and labor and children and homeless friends and family. 

Those who stop here often know a good deal about my grandchildren.  They are pure treasure to me--each in his or her own way.  Getting to watch these four amazing people is the most satisfying, thrilling experience.  Again and again, I'm made to stop and laugh, wonder, cry, rejoice and celebrate their lives.  Somehow, Gracie, Wyatt, Owen and Henry point me clearly toward my purpose.  Somehow, they provide balance, strength and courage for my life.  So, expect to learn more about them in 2014!

Now, enough of the personal stuff.

Bring on 2014!  And, agree or disagree, please know that your comments make this page much more helpful than it could ever be without them.

I'll look for you here.
___________________

R.I.P. and Happy Birthday, Mom.  You'll never be forgotten.

Dr. King's fight for economic justice--Taylor Branch and James Cone

Taylor Branch's books about the American Civil Rights Movement are classics.

 I was fortunate enough to sit in the classroom during seminary with James Cone.

 Both men command our attention, especially today.

 Watch and then react.

It's about justice

Systemic justice is a result-oriented justice

Marcus Borg contends that Jesus has something to say about the way we organize ourselves in community — that when a society is structured to serve the self-interests of the wealthy and powerful it is not a just society. “If you have a society in which 1% of the population own 43% of the wealth, it is pretty clear that the 1% has structured that society so it kind of worked out that way — and they have a tremendous amount of power to sustain it.”

– Marcus Borg in Living the Questions 2.0

Internationally known in both academic and church circles as a biblical and Jesus scholar, Marcus Borg was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007. Borg has been described by The New York Times as “a leading figure in his generation of Jesus scholars” and is the author of over twenty books, including the popular “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” and “The Heart of Christianity.”

“LtQ Clips” offer thought-provoking observations and comments on spirituality and religion from prominent authors, scholars, and thinkers. These excerpts from“Living the Questions” curriculum are designed to spark conversation in questioning the dominant pop theology of American Christianity.

Sharks in the water!

Yesterday's editions of The Dallas Morning News published this opinion essay from the paper's editorial staff. It is gratifying to see the work of CitySquare's public policy team and those of our growing number of partners have good results in affecting public values and opinion. Much work remains to be done on the issue of predatory lending, but we're making progress! Thanks, Gerald and team for your hard work.

I've posted the editorial statement below.

Editorial: It’s time for tighter oversight of payday lenders

08 July 2012 10:38 PM

The free-enterprise advocate in us says that payday lenders should operate wherever the market takes them. It’s a business, after all. If people don’t want the product they sell, the market will show them the exit door.

The problem is that quick-cash lenders don’t operate under normal market conditions. Their market, in fact, operates exactly the opposite — enticing desperate people away from what should be their very first option, economizing in every way. When you are short on money, you buy cheaper food, find a lower-rent apartment.

Banks make their services scarce for people in trouble. There’s no cheap, off-brand place to shop. For many consumers, the only choice is to seek out a title lender, who will accept a car or house title as collateral on a short-term, high-interest loan. Like a shark hunting wounded prey, the companies profit by exploiting the customer at his weakest moment.

Texas, which has some of the loosest regulations in the country for payday and title lenders, is witnessing an explosive expansion of these businesses. Oversight is nowhere near what it should be as some lenders charge usurious amounts. Effective rates of 300 percent or more are common, and when the customer can’t pay, his car or house becomes the lender’s property.

In a recent study by Texas Appleseed and the Anti-Poverty Coalition of Greater Dallas, 37 of the 241 short-term lenders in the city were surveyed on their effective rates and the legally required loan information they make available to clients. As Gerald Britt Jr., vice president of public policy at CitySquare, noted on our Viewpoints page last week, 41 percent of outlets surveyed did not abide by legal requirements and offered misleading information about the risks of quick-cash loans.

They get away with it because lawmakers who seek tighter oversight run into an extremely well-funded lobby. Quick-cash lenders donate heavily to politicians and intimidate city governments with the threat of expensive litigation.

Fort Worth-based title lender Cash America International is the No. 1 contributor to Dallas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, ranks No. 10 in the House for contributions from the payday loan lobby, according to OpenSecrets.org.

The industry donates generously to Democratic and Republican legislators alike at the state level. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings previously sat on the board of directors of Ace Cash Express and has defended such services as necessary, particularly in southern Dallas, to serve the “under-banked.”

What about protecting the over-exploited? As this newspaper noted in a Points special section last October, there is a lopsided presence of quick-cash loan shops in the poorest neighborhoods of southern Dallas and an unusually strong concentration of these loan shops in Dallas’ biggest crime hot spots — both north and south. We do not need more of them.

If legislators won't to stand up to this powerful lobby, reject their donations and impose tougher regulations, the least Dallas and other local governments can do is ensure that existing laws are enforced vigorously.

Stop treating the financially vulnerable as shark bait.

Follow the money

A sampling of campaign donations by members of the quick-cash loan industry from 2008 to present:

Recipient / Donor / Amount

Rep. Pete Sessions, R / Cash America Int’l / $37,500

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R / Cash America Int’l / $24,500

State Rep. Helen Giddings, D / Cash America Int’l / $5,750

State Sen. Royce West, D / Cash America Int’l / $5,000

State Rep. Raphael Anchía, D / Cash America Int’l / $3,500

State Rep. Marc Veasey, D / Cash America Int’l / $2,500

Texans for Joe Straus / Ace Cash Express / $34,000

Texans for Rick Perry / Ace Cash Express / $22,000


Mexican-American Legislative Caucus / Consumer Service Alliance of Texas* / $20,000


Texans for Greg Abbott / Ace Cash Express / $12,500

SOURCES: Federal Election Commission, Texas Ethics Commission

Poverty in the extreme. . .

The following report is shocking. 

The data reported sounds like something from a third world nation.  The unseen impoverished in cities like Dallas give a whole new meaning to concepts like "poverty," "the urban underclass," and "recession."  In fact, tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, and their number is growing, scratch out a life with virtually no resources.  Some have been living in depression-like circumstances for over 30 years.  What we're talking about here is "deep poverty."

After you read the report, let me know what you think.

Extreme Poverty In The U.S. Has Doubled In The Last 15 Years

March 12, 2012
By Pat Garofalo

According to the latest Census Bureau data, nearly 50 percent of Americans are either low-income or living in poverty in the wake of the Great Recession. And a new study from the National Poverty Center shows just how deep in poverty some of those people are, finding that the number of households living on less than $2 per day (before government benefits) has more than doubled in the last 15 years:

The number of U.S. households living on less than $2 per person per day — which the study terms “extreme poverty” — more than doubled between 1996 and 2011, from 636,000 to 1.46 million, the study finds. The number of children in extremely poor households also doubled, from 1.4 million to 2.8 million.

While extreme poverty doubled overall, it tripled amongst female headed households. Of course, there’s always the tact taken North Carolina Republican State Representative George Cleveland last week, who simply denied that anyone in his state lives in extreme poverty. As we noted at the time, “the 728,842 North Carolinians who are classified as living in deep poverty might take issue with that assessment.”

Mapping poverty in the U. S.

Check out the source for this instructive map here and here.

No surprise on Texas for us.  Lots of work to do.

Senior citizens and hunger, poverty

Feeding America CEO says House Bill Would Increase Hunger for Vulnerable Seniors and Children


Coalition Urges House of Representatives to Reject Cuts to Nutrition Programs


CHICAGO, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On May 31, The House Committee on Appropriations approved dramatic cuts to several federal nutrition programs that would eliminate nutrition assistance for hundreds of thousands of low-income seniors, women, infants, and children and cut support for charitable food assistance by over 20 percent.

"The proposed cuts are staggering," said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America. "It is not an overstatement to say that the House bill would make it harder for millions of low-income Americans to get enough to eat – Americans who are already struggling just to get by from day to day. These proposed cuts are indefensible. There is no other word for it."

A coalition of 34 national organizations signed a letter circulated by Feeding America urging House Appropriators to reject the cuts to nutrition programs, stating that the "legislation would have a devastating impact on our most vulnerable citizens and erode the foundation of the emergency food network." The letter was signed by a coalition of anti-hunger, faith-based, children, seniors, and other organizations.

"The House proposal would push more people to local charities at the same time it slashes emergency food assistance for food banks, church pantries, and other charitable food providers," Escarra said. "Not only will our food banks not be able to meet the increased demand for food assistance if the cuts to nutrition programs go through, we will have to reduce current levels of support for existing clients."

Feeding America is the nation's largest hunger relief organization, providing food to nearly 6 million people across all 50 states every week through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens and other emergency feeding facilities. The number of clients served by the Feeding America network has risen 46 percent in the past four years.

"We are doing everything we can to help, but local food banks and pantries are already stretched thin and charity cannot solve the problem alone," Escarra said. "Feeding America was already concerned about the prospect of bare shelves later this year due to an expected drop off in federal commodities, and we simply could not meet the increased need in communities across America if Congress approves reductions to federal nutrition assistance programs."

Many struggling families are able to put food on the table only because of the safety net provided by federal nutrition programs – including SNAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Supplement Food Program (CSFP), and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). More than 40 million Americans live at or below the federal poverty level. One in seven Americans, half of whom are children, is enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) program.

"Members of Congress have an opportunity to reject these harmful cuts with the bill goes to the House floor for a vote later this month," Escarra said.

About Feeding America

Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks support 61,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit http://www.feedingamerica.org. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow our news on Twitter at twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.

Ross Fraser
Feeding America
312.641.6422