Tyren McGruder, center, is grateful for financial help from Exodus Lending.
He is shown with Meghan Olsen Biebighauser, Exodus’ (former) interim director, and Adam Rao, its founding director, now an MBA student at the University of Minnesota.
Tyren McGruder, a working-class single dad, has emerged from the debt trap of payday loans thanks to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.
Church members decided to do something in 2012 when a couple of payday lenders moved into their East Lake Street neighborhood.
“Holy Trinity always has been very social-justice and community-oriented,” said Phil Jury, businessman and church member who started to study the payday situation with other congregants. “We felt if we could develop a working alternative to these lenders, then we could more easily press the case for [state] legislative reform of this industry.”