Oceanside Council May Crack Down on Predatory Lenders

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published September 19, 2007 at 12:03 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The Oceanside city council will consider tonight whether to regulate Payday Loan stores more strictly. More than 20 payday loans stores have sprung up in Oceanside, within easy reach of Marines at Cam

The Oceanside city council will consider tonight whether to regulate Payday Loan stores more strictly. More than 20 payday loans stores have sprung up in Oceanside, within easy reach of Marines at Camp Pendleton. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Payday loans offer short term loans at interest rates of up to 400 percent a year.

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Marine Corp General Michael Lehnert has said predatory lending practices affect military readiness for some marines, who get caught in a downward spiral of debt.

Mike Hire of the Navy and Marine Corp Relief Society on Camp Pendleton says more restrictive zoning for the stores would help.

Hire : It's very heartwarming to see that communities are recognizing the negative impact that payday lenders have on our military personnel. It allows us to be talking about alternatives which are not predatory lending practices.

Oceanside will consider banning payday loan stores near schools and parks.

Federal legislation goes into effect next month, making it illegal for stores to lend to military personnel at interest rates higher than 36 percent.

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Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.