Almost a year after ACORN appeared before Burnaby council to call for a limit on payday lenders in the city, the advocacy group is asking what’s taking so long to review their delegation.
“It’s taken quite a long time,” said Monica McGovern, chair of the Burnaby chapter of ACORN. “First they told us, ‘Well, we can’t do anything until after the election.’ Now the election’s over.
“We’ve contacted the planning committee and they said they’ll let us know when they present it back to council. When it goes back to council, we urge them to look at it and introduce a bylaw to limit the proliferation of these payday lenders.”
On Tuesday, ACORN members rallied outside of a newly opened Cash Money store on Kingsway, just two blocks from a Money Mart. The group’s delegation from last February requested the city impose a limit not only on the number of payday lenders in the city, but enforce a minimum distance between them.
“People are just going from one to the other,” said McGovern. “You just walk across the street.”
McGovern added that payday lenders take advantage of low-income residents, charging exorbitant fees and interest that puts them further into debt.
“They’re all down here because it’s the poor that they’re exploiting and it’s the poor that’s going to use it,” she said. “Put them in the wealthy areas – put them up in Willingdon, there are very few up there.”
Coun. Dan Johnston estimated the report could appear before council in the summer, though he said it may not be a priority to planning staff.
“It’s probably more important to the community and to the members of council, but the planners don’t see it quite as important as some of the other projects they’re working on,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that the city should have affordable alternatives to payday lenders and said that council is taking the issue seriously.
“I think, fundamentally, they share ACORN’s concerns. Saying that, we’re limited on what we can do – we can basically bring in zoning that prevents new ones from opening.”
