KPBS, May 3, 2021, Businesses In San Diego’s Majority White Communities Received By Far The Most PPP Loans
Behind this fear of the PPP loans is a lack of experience with banks. A report by the New York Fed found that only 25% of Black-owned businesses had a relationship with a bank.
And the Small Business Majority found that in California, 28% of small business owners of color lacked this relationship, compared with 19% of white business owners.
“If a business didn’t have a preexisting relationship with a lender, it was hard to get in with that lender,” said Jason Richardson, the director of research and evaluation at the advocacy organization National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “That’s not a program requirement, that’s a choice the lender made. The effect is a large public benefit was not available to the public in the way it was intended.”
