{"id":318941,"date":"2024-04-19T10:02:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T08:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318941"},"modified":"2024-04-19T10:02:40","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T08:02:40","slug":"claim-climate-change-is-driving-impoverished-californians-to-use-predatory-payday-loans-to-pay-energy-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318941","title":{"rendered":"Claim: Climate Change is Driving Impoverished Californians to use \u201cPredatory\u201d Payday Loans to Pay Energy Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently if it wasn\u2019t for climate change, we wouldn\u2019t be having so much of this hot and cold weather which is stretching household finances in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Climate change driving demand for predatory loans, research shows<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study connects heatwaves and cold snaps to surges in payday lending, keeping people in debt and harming communities of color<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilary Beaumont<\/a> Mon 15 Apr 2024 20.00 AEST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two competing payday loan stores stand on the corners of an intersection in south Los Angeles. An area of persistent poverty, south LA is also a banking desert<\/a> where payday lenders fill the gap. Long lines form inside the stores on the first of the month, when rent is due.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guillermina Molina, a 60-year-old retired housekeeper, visits the same Speedy Cash each month. During the summer months \u2013 which are becoming increasingly hot \u2013 she runs her air conditioner but frets about her utility bills. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard because the [power bill] is coming up too high because you gotta have the air conditioner on,\u201d Molina said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During heatwaves, Molina\u2019s daughter, Vanessa Vargas, checks in on her every day. \u201cI don\u2019t want to pull up to her house and find her [passed out] because of the heat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molina doesn\u2019t have savings, so to cover her bills she takes out a $225 payday loan every month, paying $45 in interest on each loan. When she\u2019s unable to pay back her loan on time, she\u2019s charged extra. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing left over,\u201d Vargas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/apr\/15\/predatory-loans-heatwaves-cold-snaps<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Abstract of the study;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Extreme Weather and Low-Income Household Finance: Evidence from Payday Loans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Shihan Xie, Victoria Wenxin Xie and Xu Zhang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper explores the impact of extreme weather exposures on the financial outcomes of
low-income households. Using a novel dataset comprising individual-level payday loan
applications and loan-level information, we find that extreme temperature days\u2014both hot and
cold\u2014lead to surges in demand for payday loans. An increase in the number of days with
extreme heat results in an increase in delinquency and default rates and a reduction of total
credit issued, indicating a contraction in loan supply. These effects are especially noticeable for
online payday loans. Our findings highlight the heightened financial vulnerability of low-
income households to environmental shocks and underscore the need for targeted policies.Read more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0https:\/\/www.bankofcanada.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/swp2024-1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

California has some of the most expensive energy in the USA because of their green energy policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of whether you believe in future climate catastrophes, and whether California\u2019s climate initiatives will have a global impact, right now it would be more accurate to say that climate policy rather than climate change is creating financial hardship for low income Californians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently if it wasn\u2019t for climate change, we wouldn\u2019t be having so much of this hot and cold weather which is stretching household finances in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":318943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818068,691818056,691818514,691828224],"class_list":{"0":"post-318941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-extreme-weather","11":"tag-household-finance","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0California-financing-money-3.jpg?fit=1500%2C969&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1kYd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":419521,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=419521","url_meta":{"origin":318941,"position":0},"title":"Climate Policies Make California Unaffordable, LAist, Not Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/01\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent article at LAist titled \u201cThe poor are in a very bad state: Climate change accelerates California\u2019s cost-of-living crisis,\u201d claims that climate change is increasing the cost of living in California. 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These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle.\u201d That\u2019s actually a good definition.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/002weather_comp01-superJumbo-v3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/002weather_comp01-superJumbo-v3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/002weather_comp01-superJumbo-v3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/002weather_comp01-superJumbo-v3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/002weather_comp01-superJumbo-v3.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318944,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318941\/revisions\/318944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/318943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}