When Scene Magazine asked our newly minted Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones what he would do with the $731,000 he inherited from the outgoing councilman, the first thing he said was that he’d like to explore the idea of starting an interest-free loan program, which would prevent residents from falling into the clutches of parasitic payday lenders. To me, this says everything I need to know about Jones’ character and compassion.
For years I’ve felt that if fair-minded individuals and institutions are so outraged by the interest rates payday lenders charge, why don’t they start a business that offers fair rates — a business like Faith United Credit Union, located in the Union-Miles neighborhood of Cleveland, that receives little help from the state?
Of course the devil is always in the details, and starting a loan program — interest free or not — might prove difficult to do since the majority of the funds Jones has at his disposal are of the block grant variety, and such funds normally are used for bricks and mortar projects. However, some of the funds — a much smaller portion — is casino money, and the rules governing those funds might allow a bit more leeway. But the mere fact Jones is interested in attempting to solve this critical problem and prevent his constituents from being preyed upon is quite refreshing.
Nonetheless, such a loan program could be fraught with pitfalls that would have to be negotiated around. The nonprofit my wife and I run started a small interest-free loan program for our workers and we felt that since we were cutting the paychecks there would not be a problem with us getting repaid. And, while in the majority of the cases the loans were repaid without incident, in a few cases there were problems.
One guy simply quit showing up for work rather than repay the loan — I’m not kidding. But then, when his girlfriend went to jail over some driving incident and he needed to bail her out so that she wouldn’t lose her job, who did he call?
You guessed it.
Edwin said, “Mr. Frazier, I know I still owe you that $200 from before, but this is really, really important; I don’t want her to lose her job. I promise you we’ll begin paying you back as soon as she gets out of jail and gets back to work.” Needless to say, the bitch is still in jail, last I heard.
And then there was the guy who, upon cashing his paycheck downtown, stopped in the casino so that he could, in his words, “double his money” and then be able to pay us all of what he owed us instead of part of it. Again, needless to say, he wasn’t able to pay us any of what he owed since he got skinned in a poker game. But the good news is, he eventually did pay us back.
My point is, what my new councilman is proposing is indeed noble, and he might be able to work the details out, since there is a need for a loan program that doesn’t rape the citizens of Ward 7. Who knows, if Councilman Jones can’t use the funds he has on hand, he might be able to get some of the large institutions that are drooling over the prospect of doing business in the ward to endow such a loan program.
And there is precedent. Ken Lumpkin, who was a city councilman in the 90s, started a similar program by leveraging a combination of block grant funds and investments from business entities that wanted to do business in his ward. It was highly successful, and history could repeat itself.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com
One Response to “MANSFIELD: Off to a Flying Start”
Rita L Haynes
Newly elected Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones is to be commended for the compassion he has for those in his ward caught in the payday lenders web. However nobel, we at FAITH COMMUNITY UNITED CREDIT UNION, would be the first to worn him of the pitfalls of this type of lending and also offer suggestions on how a branch of Faith could be duplicated in Hough. Atty. Ken Lumpkin, former councilman and a friend, would be an ideal person to consult. Other larger business entities would be happy to be a part of a well planned package to improve the lives of the people in Hough. Why start from scratch? It would be wise to enlist the wisdom of those who have crossed the bridge before.