List, I haven't ranted on the list for a bit, so when I saw the post about the Planning Commission's support for Unbank and the unarticulated unhappiness by a group of Central residents -- I thought to myself "no time like the present"
For many, driving down a commercial street and seeing check-cashing or payday loan businesses and advertisements for a rent-to-own sale on a complete living room set is a sign of economic destruction. For many it communicates "slums", the "ghetto" and reminds them to lock their door and roll up their windows. The liberal righteousness decries the hardship burdened by poor folk. For me it is a clear sign of the failure of the mainstream economic institutions to meet the needs of low-income people. The mainstream economic institutions of banks and credit unions do not meet the needs of many of the people in our community. For these people the process of paying rent, sending in the electrical bill, securing a phone line, or buying a bedroom set can be a nightmare process of fingerprints, user fees, double charges, demeaning looks, and multiple visits. Accomplishing this while holding down your job and parenting kids takes a pretty clever genius to not be looking at further declining credit, late fees, poor rental history and a host of interrelated challenges. Yes, check cashing facilities and rent-to-owns charge extraordinary high interest rates and fees. Banks charge less fees (ideally anyway) and credit cards charge lower rates (well, except mine -- but that is a different story) but there are many people who for a variety of reasons do not have the credit to secure a credit card. I know, for those of you that get tons of credit card applications in the mail every day it might be hard to imagine. For the majority with bank accounts, debit cards, and easy access to your cash at any ATM, the value of a check cashing facility may not be immediately apparent. But for thousands of people with no bank account, these businesses allow the customer to convert a paycheck into the cash they need to pay bills. For the majority with credit cards and draft protection on your bank accounts, covering an unexpected car or medical cost is not a disaster. But for thousands of people with no credit; a payday loan can be the only hope. The alternative is the guy you know through a friend of a friend who will charge you a lot more money and threaten physical harm on your loved one if you can't pay at the right time. Is it a moral outrage that people who are already paid abysmally unlivable amounts of money for the work they do have to pay extraordinary fees to cash their check, and pay again to convert their cash into a money orders to pay their rent or phone bill? Yes. Is it a moral outrage that people get caught in cycles of debt just to have a television or a couch to sit on in their living room? Yes. But the answer is not making access to financial services even more difficult. Licensing, regulating, and bureaucratizing them out of the neighborhood does not make the need go away. So before we wave the flag of neighborhood standards, cleaning up the ghetto, and stand on the platform of moral righteous decrying user fees let's explore what we could do to support and empower low income people to have access to the financial services that they (we) need. I am not speaking for or against the proposal for an UnBank in Central Neighborhood. I am making no value judgment about the representation or lack-thereofof CNIA to the broader community interest. I am making no comment on the emergence of other organizations to represent groups of resident's interest. I am writing only to invite the list to think creatively how the community can support meeting real needs of families and invite them into the mainstream economic institutions. Rather than rally against what we don't like; let's develop some viable solutions for what we do want. What does a neighborhood-based institution look like that cashes checks, provides payday loans, and rents-to-own without user fees? What if people could build a savings account each time they made their rental payment, or each time they cashed their check at that neighborhood-based business? What is social service organizations used money, not as a hand -ut, but an incentive and matched this savings account so that people had a real chunk of change? What if this real chunk of change allowed someone to open a real bank account, with draft protection, a visa debit card, and a financial counselor to support developing money management skills? What if that was a business that was collaboratively owned by the community so that the profit could be reinvested in the community? What if someone called Unbank and asked them if they want to be a partner in that business? Just a thought, Joseph Barisonzi Lyndale, Ward 10 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
