The Miami Herald, March 26, 2022, They didn’t pay a hitman with the cash. Why aren’t more minority PPP loans in Miami being forgiven? | Editorial
There have been headline-making abuses of federal Paycheck Protection Program loans in South Florida, known for years as the fraud capital of the nation.
There’s evidence of bias from the start of the program. According to researchers at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that advocates an end to discrimination in housing, lending and business, white prospective borrowers were more often encouraged to apply for a loan than Black prospective borrowers. (In April and May of 2020, the organization sent white and Black prospective borrowers, in similar financial situations, to banks to ask about the loans.) Additionally, women were given less information than men.
Anneliese Lederer, director of fair lending and consumer protection at the NCRC, called it “blatant discrimination.”
