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CFPB Makes Move to Support Payday Lenders During Black History Month

NNPA NEWSWIRE — When given the chance at the ballot box, Americans overwhelmingly vote to impose a 36 percent or less rate cap. Today, 16 states and the District of Columbia have these rate caps in place, providing strong protection from payday loan sharks. In remaining states – those without a rate cap – interest rates run as high as 460 percent in California, over 400 percent in Illinois and 662 percent in Texas.

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By Charlene Crowell, Communications Deputy Director with the Center for Responsible Lending and NNPA Newswire Contributor

Each February, Black History Month commemorates the unique American experience of Blacks in America. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown, Virginia arrival of captured and shackled Africans.

In the ensuing years, as slavery grew, so did the wealth of those who claimed our forefathers as ‘property’. By April 12-13, 1861, the wealth built on slave labor was forcefully protected with the Battle of Fort Sumter, considered by historians to be the start of the Civil War that lasted until 1865 and the war’s end.

Slavery’s iron shackles that bound women, children and men may be gone. But in today’s America, the iron has been replaced by a different kind of shackle, just as debilitating as iron: predatory debt.

Abundant research has shown that payday and car-title lenders trap people in debilitating debt that can trigger a series of negative consequences: overdraft fees, the loss of a bank account, loss of personal vehicles and even bankruptcy. People struggling to repay these loans have been reported to forego daily living needs or needed medical treatments.

So, it is indeed troubling that in 2019, that under the Trump Administration, the federal agency with a designated mission to provide consumer financial protection took an about-face to protect predatory lenders instead of consumers on February 6. Kathy Kraninger, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the agency’s plan to repeal a rule aimed at stopping the payday lending debt trap.

Promulgated by CFPB’s first director during the Obama Administration, the rule requires payday and other small-dollar lenders to make loans only after determining borrowers’ ability-to-repay. That now-suspended rule followed years of public hearings, rulemaking sessions, and research that ultimately found that triple-digit interest rates on loans were virtual debt traps for borrowers. Further, the people targeted for these predatory loans are those who could least afford interest or fees that exceeded the principal borrowed: the poor, the elderly, communities of color, and military veterans.

The Bureau’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announced by the CFPB offers a two-part plan. The first is to needlessly delay the effective date of a common-sense consumer protection rule. The second is to rewrite and likely gut the substance of the rule itself. The likely cumulative effect will allow payday and other predatory lenders to continue to ply their wares and continue financially exploiting consumers of color.

Reactions to CFPB’s announcement were as strong as they were plentiful.

“With little accountability for their actions, payday lenders have long preyed upon communities of color and drained them of their hard-earned savings,” noted Hilary O. Shelton, NAACP’s Washington Bureau Director and Senior Vice President for Policy and Advocacy. “Stripping the key protections of this rule is a disservice to the public,” he added.

Similar comments came from other civil rights organizations.

“This decision will put already struggling families in a cycle of debt and leave them in an event worse financial position,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “This administration has moved the CFPB away from protecting consumers to protecting the very companies abusing them.”

When given the chance at the ballot box, Americans overwhelmingly vote to impose a 36 percent or less rate cap. Today, 16 states and the District of Columbia have these rate caps in place, providing strong protection from payday loan sharks. In remaining states – those without a rate cap – interest rates run as high as 460 percent in California, over 400 percent in Illinois and 662 percent in Texas.

According to Rebecca Borne, a CRL Senior Policy Counsel, Kraninger’s announcement ignores five years’ worth of input from a broad group of stakeholders: faith leaders, veteran and military organizations, civil rights groups, consumer advocates and consumers across the country.

“But over the past year, payday lenders have spearheaded an in effort with Mick Mulvaney and now Kraninger’s help, to take consumer protections away from financially vulnerable Americans, “said Borne. “We urge Director Kraninger to reconsider, as her current plan will keep families trapped in predatory, unaffordable debt.”

Let us all hope and work for a different kind of emancipation: financial freedom.

Charlene Crowell is the Communications Deputy Director with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of January 29 – February 4, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 29 – February 4, 2025

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Oakland Poll: Tell Us What You Think About the Cost of Groceries in Oakland

Food banks and grocery giveaways are a large part of the resources nonprofits in Oakland prioritize, particularly in areas like East and West Oakland where low-income families of color tend to reside. These neighborhoods are often labeled as “food deserts” or communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.

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Oakland Poll: Tell Us What You Think About the Cost of Groceries in Oakland
Oakland Poll: Tell Us What You Think About the Cost of Groceries in Oakland

By Magaly Muñoz

In 2023, the average spending on groceries increased by nearly $30 each month from the year before;people are spending over $500 a month to put food on the table.

Through previous reporting by the Post, we’ve learned that families in Oakland are depending more and more on free or low cost groceries from food banks because they can no longer afford the rising costs of food at the store.

Food banks and grocery giveaways are a large part of the resources nonprofits in Oakland prioritize, particularly in areas like East and West Oakland where low-income families of color tend to reside. These neighborhoods are often labeled as “food deserts” or communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods.

We’ve recently spoken to families across these two areas of Oakland and have heard several stories that all point to one problem: food is expensive. Some individuals are spending upwards of $150 a week for themselves or double if they have teens or small children in the family.

We’ve also heard stories of people with chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure struggling to maintain their diets because they’re having a hard time affording the food that helps them stay healthy.

Do these experiences sound similar to what you or your family are dealing with every month? Are you struggling to afford your basic groceries every week? Do you depend on food banks to help you get by? Are there any chronic illnesses in your household that need to be managed by a special diet?

We want to hear about your experiences and ideas for solutions!

The Oakland Post is investigating food access in Oakland and how residents are surviving as the cost of living continues to increase. Your experiences will help shape our reporting and show local leaders the need to invest in our communities.

In order to get as much feedback as possible, we ask that you click this link to fill out a brief questionnaire or visit tinyurl.com/Oakland-Post-food-survey. You can also scan the QR code above to reach the survey. After you fill it out, please consider sharing the link with your friends and family in Oakland.

If you have questions, please reach out to our Oakland reporter Magaly Muñoz at mmunoz@postnewsgroup or text/call her at (510) 905-5286.

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