Salt Lake urged to limit payday lenders

Linda Hilton wants the "proliferation" of "predatory lenders" to end Tuesday night.

That's when the Salt Lake City Council, after nearly a year of wrestling with the issue, is set to vote on an ordinance that would require a one-half-mile buffer between payday lenders.

"We need to cap this proliferation," said Hilton, of the Coalition of Religious Communities, on the steps of the City-County Building Monday.

While other cities along the Wasatch Front have put restrictions on check-cashing businesses, Salt Lake has been too slow to act, Hilton said. Meanwhile, the number of those businesses has jumped from 17 to 48 since 2007, she said.

"We're still waiting for Salt Lake City," Hilton said.

The council delayed a vote on the issue two weeks ago following a public hearing that saw people speak passionately on both sides of the issue.

"We are the only ones who have not acted on this and, quite frankly, I think it's shameful," Councilman JT Martin said.

For their part, payday lenders said they provide the community a needed service. Taking out a loan can be less expensive than bounced checks and overdraft fees, they said.

"I hear from my customers how appreciative they are of the service," Wendy Gibson, who manages a payday lending business, told the council. The proposed ordinance would "limit my customers' access to credit."

Payday lenders take advantage of people in difficult financial situations and can charge more than 500 percent interest on loans, said Sarah Martindell, a social justice advocate for the Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake.

"We're actually limiting someone's best access to debt," Martindell said Monday.

e-mail: afalk@desnews.com