Promoting Ethical Profits and Responsible Commerce

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Initiatives:

Gulf Coast Alternative Staffing Initiative

Day Labor

Mortgage Lending

Payday Lending

Don’t Borrow Trouble® is an unbiased, Freddie Mac and community-sponsored, non-profit agency that knows the programs, products and people throughout Tucson. These resources can help you understand your financial decisions when it comes to homeownership and payday lending practices.

Hotline (520)792-3087

Our Mission

The Southwest Center for Economic Integrity engages in research, education and advocacy to strengthen local economies by mobilizing and protecting marginalized people, holding corporations and industries accountable to communities and cultivating support for good business practices.

GULF COAST ALERNATIVE STAFFING INITIATIVE

The Southwest Center for Economic Integrity (SCEI) has been sub contracted by Public/Private Ventures to assess the feasibility of seeding up to three alternative staffing organizations (ASOs) in the Gulf Coast and provide technical assistance to selected nonprofits in the region interested in launching an ASO as a unique social enterprise. The goal of this initiative is to help displaced workers reattach to the labor market and connect workers that face multiple barriers to employment with jobs in the region.

The initiative will provide resources and technical assistance to local nonprofits, develop a network of ASOs, meet the employment and reconstruction demands within communities sustaining economic and physical destruction, reattach individuals to the labor market and serve as a conduit for labor market change.

Payday Loans
Fast Cash or Debt Trap?

Pay Day Loans are small cash advances secured by a personal check held for future deposit or electronic withdrawal from a customer’s bank account. These loans of $50-$500 are due in full on the borrower’s next pay day or within 14 days. If the customer is unable to repay the loan within two weeks, most companies allow for the loan to be extended, or rolled over, by paying the interest on the loan. Customers are charged fees between $15 and $17.65 per $100 borrowed. The APR rate on pay day loans typically falls within a range of 390% to 500%.

Some of the heaviest concentrations of payday loan businesses are located within a three mile radius of Davis Monthan AFB. Studies indicate that nation wide there is “irrefutable geographic evidence demonstrating that payday lenders aggressively target members of the military & their families.” SCEI's research indicates that the number of payday loan shops near DM Air Force Base has nearly doubled, from 25 in the year 2003 to 46 now.

Payday loan locations are concentrated in high/medium stress & high poverty areas in Tucson & Pima County. This pattern raises questions regarding industry targeting of disadvantaged consumers.

Bridge to Better Money
Program...

The Bridge to Better Money Program links unbanked and underbanked residents in Tucson with credit unions and banks in their communities by providing a $50 incentive to open an account at the financial institution of their choice.

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