What you should know: This is the second in a LISC NYC series, Bridging the Equity Divide: Envisioning the Next Generation of NYC Community Development.
New York City is searching for a bridge over troubled waters. Did you know that approximately one-third of the city’s small businesses are on the brink of failure - especially the vast majority that are run by Black and Brown business owners? In fact, Black-owned firms have been almost twice as likely to fold up as other firms overall.1 According to Claire Kramer Mills, assistant vice president at the New York Fed, "[Black-owned] firms had weaker financial cushions, weaker bank relationships, and pre-existing funding gaps prior to the pandemic.” COVID-19 simply exacerbated problems that were already laying beneath the surface.
As we turn the page and search for long-term solutions, we have to ask ourselves: how can we make sure that we’re creating pathways to success? Let’s use this moment in history to say, “Enough is enough. Let’s create a new reality where the environment for Black and Brown-owned businesses, which are the lifeblood of disinvested communities, is transformed and there’s finally a level playing field for everyone.”
New York City needs a transformation agenda
The news is filled with stories detailing the plight of New York City’s minority-owned businesses. Harlem landmark Sylvia’s Restaurant, for example, took the unprecedented move of laying off some of its 100+ employees to keep its doors open. The New York City Council threw businesses like Sylvia’s a small lifeline by taking measures such as suspending indoor and outdoor cafe fees. To soften the economic blow of the pandemic, the city’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS) created a loan program to help small businesses stay afloat.
While these types of relief efforts have been important steps in the right direction, we can all agree that the amount of capital available, coupled with no strategy for the long-term sustainability for these business communities, is simply not enough. In the months ahead, it is critical that we continue providing businesses with the tools to adapt, survive, and ultimately transform themselves to deal with the new realities that lay ahead.
Charting a new course - LISC NYC providing new solutions to support the local economy
But change is never easy, especially when it’s forced upon you. However, we believe the type of change Black and Brown business owners need is within our reach. In response to the acute challenges on the horizon, LISC NYC is especially excited to launch a number of funds to further its goals of providing capital and technical assistance to citywide initiatives while advocating for meaningful change for New York City’s minority communities.
LISC NYC and our strategic partners are in the process of promoting access to new and emerging funding opportunities targeted at small businesses.
Lowe’s Neighborhood Business Grants: LISC NYC recently completed the application process for the Neighborhood Business Grants program, funded by Lowe’s Companies Inc. This program will provide $20,000 grants to small businesses in hard-hit neighborhoods, 95 percent of which will be minority-owned businesses.
Empire State Development Corporation’s New York Forward Loan Fund: The New York Forward Loan Fund (NYFLF) is another economic recovery loan program being spearheaded by the Empire State Development Corp. This fund targets the state’s small businesses with 20 or fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) employees (90 percent of all businesses), nonprofits, and small landlords that have seen a loss of rental income. To date, over 50 loans have been made to minority- and women-owned businesses statewide through this fund.
LISC NYC Small Business Relief and Recovery Fund: LISC NYC has partnered with the NYC SBS, along with local community-based organizations (CBOs), to create and deliver the LISC NYC Small Business Relief and Recovery Fund, with support from corporations and private donors. This initiative will provide grant funds to small, minority-owned businesses in New York City that have been struggling to stay afloat throughout the pandemic and economic downturn.
Our objectives with these new funds are three-fold:
A port in the storm
Unprecedented. Unparalleled. Extraordinary. We’re almost running out of adjectives to describe the totally unimaginable situation in which we find ourselves today. This pandemic has put everyone on their back heels and completely shattered our collective understanding of “impossible”. In fact, there’s a very real concern that the trends we are seeing today foreshadow longer-term damage to Black and Brown communities.
But there are some things that have not changed - namely, our commitment to addressing everyday necessities that are foundational to racial justice, such as affordable housing, quality education, job creation, small business growth, and wealth creation. We must commit ourselves to finally bringing an end to the chronic challenges MWBEs face when trying to access capital and overcome systemic racism. The stakes are too high to get this wrong again.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
This is the second in a new series of blog posts by LISC NYC entitled Bridging the Equity Divide: Envisioning the Next Generation of NYC Community Development. This series seeks to explore the current and potential role of New York City community development practitioners and their partners as collaborative problem solvers in the areas of radical healing of racial injustice; inclusive economic transformation in commercial development and infrastructure; and sustainable wealth generation in housing and progressive workforce development for members of the communities we serve.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Valerie White serves as Executive Director of LISC NYC. For inquiries, please contact the Marino Group at lisc@marinopr.com or 212-402-3527.
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1 The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, “New York Fed Releases Brief on COVID-19’s Effects on Black-Owned Businesses,” Aug. 4, 2020, https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/regional_outreach/2020/20200804.