South Tucson Looks Into Limiting Payday Loan Sites

Historical archive, first published 2005 — payday-lending laws and rates have changed since. Preserved for the record.

Tucson, AZ — South Tucson is the third local jurisdiction in Tucson in the past month to decide to investigate limiting payday loan businesses.

Officials from the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity told City Council members at a meeting on Monday that payday loan businesses take advantage of the poor and elderly by imposing high interest rates on small loans.

Executive Director Karin Uhlich and Deputy Director Kelly Griffith asked the council to restrict the number of the businesses in South Tucson.

Similar requests have been made to the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson City Council. All three entities approved motions to investigate the possibility of an ordinance.

Griffith said some possibilities are to tie the number of payday loan businesses to the number of residents in the town, or by distance from each other.

South Tucson, which covers one square mile, has six payday loan businesses.

Council member Ildefonso Green estimated that was one cash loan company for every 900 residents.

"They're surviving. They're flourishing," he said. "We need to look into this."