COVID-19 Updates, News, White House Report

SBA Disaster Loan Program a Disaster for Small Business

April Ryan
April 20, 2020

People stand in line as they wait to get tested for COVID-19 at a just opened testing center in the Harlem section of New York, Monday, April 20, 2020. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers would need to be tested for the coronavirus daily before city officials could start to loosen restrictions that have shuttered most workplaces and forced residents to cover their faces in public, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Small business owners are calling the SBA disaster loan program a disaster. Businesses are not receiving loans from big lenders and federal money allocated for the SBA is now depleted.

April Ryan speaks with Melba Wilson, owner & proprietor of the landmark Melba’s Restaurant in Harlem, about being declined for a loan from large lenders, and how food delivery companies like Uber Eats, Door Dash, and Grubhub take a huge percentage of restaurant earnings. Small businesses are finding loans from smaller community banks and credit unions.

Click ▶️ to listen to AURN Washington Bureau Chief April Ryan’s White House Report:

April Ryan has a unique vantage point as the only Black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she has held with AURN since the Clinton era. Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her heightened insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation. April has written three books; The Presidency in Black & White: My Close-Up View of Three Presidents and Race in America, At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White, and Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House. Twitter: @aprildryan