Erika Leos, financial program wellness manager for Foundation Communities, feels deeply for the clients who come to her organization with debts accrued from payday loans. The high-interest loans appeal to people who need that last bit of money to help them pay rent or get food on the table.

National Consumer Protection Week is a time to examine consumer protection issues, to bring awareness to potential scams and pitfalls and to remind individuals of their consumer rights. Across the country, nonprofits, including a number of NeighborWorks America network organizations, do this work every day through outreach and counseling.

Symphony Malveaux, community relations coordinator for Louisiana's Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, had been reading up on home scams as she prepared to bring awareness to her community through NeighborWorks America's Stop Home Scams initiative. Then she realized she'd nearly fallen victim to a scam herself. 

Jamill Martinez, director of network organizing at Lawrence CommunityWorks, Inc., a NeighborWorks organization in Lawrence, Massachusetts, has spent her recent afternoons visiting bodegas. That's where many residents in her community who rent single rooms in homes or apartments go to eat hot meals of empanadas, sub sandwiches, plantains and more. So that's where Martinez and her coworkers have gone to talk about the dangers of scams.

The application looked official. There was letterhead. And there were catch phrases like "specialized counselors" and "hardship." But a client who was assisted by Housing Partnership for Morris County stopped just short of working with the company, which would have charged him $1,300 just to begin a loan modification process. The client sought a modification due to financial stress caused by COVID-19. 

In the wake of the historic winter storms that have left large portions of the country blanketed