Anti-poverty activists tell S.L. mayor they are eager for change

from The salt Lake Tribune

By Steve Gehrke

Salt Lake Tribune

Memo to the mayor: Rising bus fares, proliferating payday lenders and inadequate low-income housing are wreaking havoc on Salt Lake City's impoverished.

That's the message a group of anti-poverty advocates delivered Friday to Mayor Ralph Becker. The sometimes-pointed but mostly matter-of-fact meeting sent a clear message: Activists are eager for change and are unafraid to pressure the first-term mayor.

Several activists took issue with the Utah Transit Authority's proposed 25-cent surcharge, which would boost bus and TRAX fares, and others encouraged the city to consolidate public and affordable-housing efforts with Salt Lake County.

But perhaps the hottest issue came on the heels of the City Council's decision against issuing a moratorium on new payday-loan businesses.

Linda Hilton, a leader with the Crossroads Urban Center's Coalition of Religious Communities, hurled sharp rhetoric against payday lenders and chided the city for dragging its feet for more than four years.

She urged city officials to follow the lead of various suburbs to stop exponential growth in such lending businesses by issuing a moratorium. Then they can talk about details, such as limiting interest rates and predatory payback practices.

"A two-paragraph ordinance has turned into a 12-page fiasco trying to address everything going on in the payday-lending market," Hilton told the mayor. "Why can't Salt Lake just get it done?"

Becker's chief of staff, David Everitt, said the city either can do something quickly that addresses part of the problem, or it can take a while to do something "really right."

Becker called payday lending "a horrible imposition on its victims," and stressed that the city needs to get a handle on it.

The Utah Consumer Lending Association, a trade group that represents the payday-loan industry, insists its practices are not predatory and that it already is well regulated.

Regarding wider anti-poverty policies, Becker acknowledged, they are "not moving along nearly as well as I'd like."