NPR, June 17, 2021, As Grants For Shuttered Venues Trickle Out, Many Owners Are Still Waiting
Tyrus Joseforsky had resigned himself to never seeing any federal aid set aside to help his business. “I just made peace with the fact that it wasn’t coming,” he said.
Joseforsky is the owner of Flight Levelz Entertainment, a concert and music festival promotions company based in Indiana. He has spent the past six months waiting for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program to get up and running. That’s the $16 billion program run by the Small Business Administration that’s meant to help small independent venues, promoters, movie theaters and other entertainment spaces hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. It was passed into law by former President Donald Trump in December, and only now are venue operators starting to see the promise of aid materialize.
Joseforsky is one of the lucky ones. He got a notice from the SBA last week saying that his application for the grant had been approved and that his disbursement was scheduled. But he says, “That money hasn’t hit my bank account yet. I have no idea how long that’s going to take.”
