Meghan Hoyer
“It’s why neighborhoods with lower median incomes – such as Norfolk’s Berkley and Portsmouth’s Brighton/Prentis Park – have no payday lenders, while Portsmouth’s solidly suburban subdivisions along Portsmouth Boulevard near Chesapeake Square Mall have a cluster of them.”
The Virginian-Pilot staff writer Meghan Hoyer found that payday lenders target middle-class neighborhoods and avoid poor areas of Portsmouth…
The article, which dispels a common misconception about payday loan consumers, has an excellent map based on US Census data and staff research (link to article/map provided below).
While many consumer advocates and politicians claim that payday lenders target the poor and uneducated, studies conducted in Virginia over the last 5 years found that the average payday loan consumer was a gainfully-employed, high school graduate. It turns out that these studies were accurate. From the article:
“According to several academic and industry studies done since 2002, when Virginia first permitted payday lending, the average client is a high school graduate with a job and an average income of $40,000 a year. That still is the case today.”
Meghan Hoyer is a staff writer for The Virginian-Pilot who graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in journalism (concentration in urban studies). She covers Portsmouth city planning, redevelopment and government for the Pilot.
Sources:
Who Uses Payday Loans? Not Who You Might Think. by Meghan Hoyer (The Virginian-Pilot)
Newsroom Staff Directory (The Virginian-Pilot)
Link to Article/Map:
Who Uses Payday Loans? Not Who You Might Think. (External Link)
(http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/who-uses-payday-loans-not-who-you-might-think)
Senator Lowell Barron said that payday lenders exploit “the poorest, low-income people” but many disagree. For example, the findings of Washington D.C. lawyer Charles M. Horn, payday lender James Wood and payday lender Allan Jones support the claims made in this article.
Professor Howard Karger also found that an increasing number of payday loan shops are appearing in middle-class neighborhoods.
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