CCA News
Common Cents: CCA Students Take on Predatory Lending in Oakland
Posted on Thursday, June 4, 2009, by Kim Lessard
Struck by the devastating impact of the current economic recession on lower-income communities, CCA students Arya Cayton and Yennika Ekstrand decided to make their senior thesis project about the issue of predatory lending, a practice known to be a major culprit in the global economic crisis. Both students graduated this past May, Cayton from the Community Arts program with a concentration in sculpture and ceramics, and Ekstrand with an Individualized Major with a focus in animation and screenprinting.
They approached the issue on a micro level, focusing specifically on the check-cashing and "payday" stores that primarily do business in lower-income, minority communities. "Because we are artists, not economists," said Cayton, "we viewed our activities as a creative investigation. Our goal was to better understand and share with others how predatory lending affects people in Oakland. We wanted to narrate the voices of the community."
The two students interviewed more than 25 people, including several who have become trapped in a cycle of debt due to these businesses' extraordinarily high interest rates and hidden fees. The interviewees shared personal stories about their experiences, their thoughts on class divisions and equal opportunity in Oakland, their subjective definitions of the American dream, and their opinions on the changes they've observed locally since the onset of the recession.
During their research, Cayton and Ekstrand learned that these stores are a $400 billion industry in the United States. With more than 33,000 locations nationwide, they outnumber Starbucks and McDonald's combined, and they are eight times more prevalent in communities with predominantly black or Latino populations. Very few customers pay off their loans by their first pay period. Most never get caught up; in fact, close to 90 percent continue indefinitely in a cycle of borrowing and then owing more and more fees and interest. In California alone, payday and check-cashing stores take in approximately $450 million in fees every year.
Cayton and Ekstrand incorporated their interviews and research into a written thesis and a mixed-media interactive sculpture called Common Cents, which included posters, ceramic figures, a map of store locations in Oakland, piggy banks, photographs of the interviewees, and four video monitors that played the interviews. The work was exhibited in April on CCA's Oakland campus, and then again in May on CCA's San Francisco campus as part of the year-end Baccalaureate Exhibition.
Cayton hopes that giving voice to the community will inspire some kind of action toward finding a better, fairer solution, perhaps the formation of check cashing cooperatives. "But it's complicated," she observes. "The problem is that local cooperative banks would have to compete with payday stores. I've noticed that check cashing and payday stores are strategically placed in lower-income neighborhoods so that people don't have to walk far to find one. In some areas there are multiple stores on the same block. For local cooperative banks to really be beneficial, they would need to be just as accessible."
About CCA's Community Arts Program
CCA's Community Arts Program is an interdisciplinary BFA program devoted to creative practice in the public sphere. It focuses on the ways artists and designers interact, collaborate, and intervene in a variety of social networks in order to build sustainable community relationships, engage cultural diversity, and stimulate social transformation.
CCA encourages students in all programs to explore ways in which they can use their skills and training to be of service to their communities. This is evident in the college's long history of engaging students in studio collaborations that aim to find creative solutions to society's most pressing problems on the local and the global levels.
Students are also encouraged to participate in programs offered through CCA's Center for Art and Public Life, which organizes community partnerships, emphasizing service learning, civic engagement, and diversity. The Center also provides students with funding opportunities for art and design projects that address issues of social justice, diversity, community development, and education.