ACORN/Supplied
Donna Borden, an ACORN member, advocates for stricter regulations of lenders selling high interest instalment and payday loans.
A single mother working the front desks at both a hospital and a nursing home, Donna Borden watched her debts grow.
On top of Toronto’s cost of living, Borden was juggling bills left behind when her mother died, plus helping her son buy university textbooks.
“I was trying to keep a roof over our heads,” Borden told HuffPost Canada.
Her bank refused to consolidate her debts and recommended she use the lender Fairstone Financial, then called CitiFinancial, Borden said. She took out an instalment loan in 2008 — $10,000 to be paid back over five years with about 40 per cent interest.