Today's guest, Lucia Constantine, joins us to discuss the truth about car title loans and why you should avoid them, breaking down how this industry extracts fees and keeps people tied to their payday loans.
Lucia Constantine is a researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending focusing on mortgage lending and predatory debt practices.
The Center for Responsible Lending is a non-partisan, nonprofit research and policy advocacy organization working to promote financial fairness and economic opportunity for all, end predatory lending, and close the racial wealth gaps.
Prior to working with CRL, Lucia was a senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, where she performed data analysis and research to understand gaps in affordable housing across the state and inform use of state and federal funds.
Before her work in affordable housing, she spent her early career in nonprofits and higher education, focused on issues related to immigration, civic engagement and economic development.
Lucia graduated with a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she received the NC-APA Outstanding Student Award.
She is on the board for the Durham Community Land Trust and the City of Durham’s Affordable Housing Implementation Committee.
Outside of work, Lucia enjoys hiking with her dog, reading fiction and socializing.