News
Bank opens branch just for the poor
Vancouver's Pigeon Park Savings provides an alternative to the mattress
By JENNY UECHI
Megaphone, Vancouver, Canada
It’s a blissfully sunny Wednesday morning
Comments
We all must be careful. Predatory banking is not “empowering,” in the long run. With accounts linked to TANF and so-forth, people will lose even more of their privacy—and likely control—as well.
O.K -qualifying my last comment. “Predatory” may not be the right word. Unlike benefit cards you can write checks, etc, and fee-wise, it seems better than a payday loan or other practices. So it’s not the worst thing in the world, in itself. The fact remains that these institutions are the same ones that make it difficult to keep an account in the first place—and they want to continue doing that—yet they recognize a market, similar to Costco starting to take food stamps. Whether banking and social work are really a good mix is also a question, for privacy’s sake, and because of the old assumptions about links between poverty and some kind of personal problem. The matress is looking better and better… Pax.
Christal Wood, J.D.
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