Oakland org focuses on struggles of Black-owned businesses amid pandemic - SF Chronicle; 7/9/2020

BARHII is proud to have contributed to an article published in the July 9, 2020 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Minority-owned businesses are experiencing disproportionate impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. This is especially true for Black-owned businesses, which have unequal access to recovery funding and have been more likely to shut their doors than other businesses. This article examines the struggles of Black-owned businesses amid the pandemic.

Key quotes from the article include:

"Even amid a nationwide reckoning about racism, minority-owned businesses are experiencing disproportionate impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. This is especially true for Black-owned businesses, which had unequal access to recovery funding and are more likely to shut their doors than other businesses."

"'It's just an exacerbation of what we've already been seeing and what's already been in place. It's just highlighted right now,' Shomari Carter, executive director of Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal, said at a virtual conference [hosted by BARHII] Wednesday that focused on the problem. 'It's an issue of access. We saw this with the Paycheck Protection Program. We had no one to call. There was no way to access your application.'"

"Black entrepreneurs have been more than twice as likely to have a bank loan denied than their white counterparts, according to the Brookings Institution, a public policy nonprofit. If approved, Black entrepreneurs often get less favorable terms. And only half of Black-owned businesses pulled through the 2008-09 recession, compares with more than 60% of white-owned companies, the Brookings Institution found."

View the article BARHII contributed to here.

(https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Oakland-organization-focuses-on-struggles-of-15397388.php)