David Dayen, celebrated finance journalist, features Community Check Cashing in a CDFI/CCC-focused article in Salon!
A Check Masters payday lending storefront is seen Monday, Dec. 28, 2009, in Seattle. A new law regulating payday lenders that takes effect Jan. 1, 2010, will limit the size and numbers of loans people can make in Washington state. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
One little storefront in Oakland cannot change the world. Or maybe it can. With enough funding, a non-profit foothold in the small-dollar loan market can ease the burden of perpetual debt on vulnerable communities. And Community Check Cashing’s model of engaging in deep relationships with their customers can do more than just provide ready cash. “In our testimonials, people are saying, our lives are changed now,” said Dan Leibsohn, who opened Community Check Cashing in 2009.
The idea has drawn the attention of Strike Debt Bay Area, an offshoot of the Occupy movement. “It fulfills a need without being exploitive,” said J.P. Massar of Strike Debt Bay Area. “We believe that an operation whose goal is to help people get out of the cycle of debt, while providing a service which is still necessary in our society, is one worth replicating rather than having predatory payday lenders proliferate.”
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