Borough President Vanessa Gibson sounds off on Bronx COVID business relief shortfall
NEW YORK — Hundreds of programs to get tiny small business loans in the Bronx for the duration of the pandemic have been rejected by the town.
Only a little handful of financial loans went via compared to lots of much more in Manhattan. CBS2 has discovered a good deal about the fallout, the outcry and research for alternatives.
“Truly, I experienced to wander away from it,” stated Tyrone Robinson, owner of The Dugout.
Robinson blames losing his organization to a combination of negative politics, governmental purple tape and COVID-19. Individuals elements pressured him to stroll away from the bar correct throughout the street from Yankee Stadium.
An individual else a short while ago took more than the location he opened in 2004.
“I tried out like each avenue,” Robinson said.
He claims in the course of the pandemic he was regularly denied grants and financial loans.
Debts, such as back again hire, multiplied to $500,000, when programs ended up rejected once more and once again.
“I acquired many excuses. One particular getting, oh my enterprise failed to exist. One more 1 is that I filed much too many programs. A further a person, I failed to have enough staff,” Robinson stated.
Now he learns two new audits by City Comptroller Brad Lander uncovered “insufficient oversight by the Division of Modest Business enterprise Expert services,” with two COVID-19 aid applications for “zero-desire financial loans” and “partial payroll grants.”
As the metropolis mobilized in 2020 and stored countless numbers of neighborhood corporations afloat, the Bronx bought the smallest piece of the pie.
“It is a reminder of some of the gaps in providers and deficiencies,” Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson mentioned.
Gibson claimed what also angers her about the comptroller’s audit is the locating that Manhattan acquired more than its good share. Manhattan firms been given shut to 57% of the financial loans, compared to 2.2% in the Bronx.
Portion of the challenge, according to Landers’ office environment, is hundreds of financial loans and countless numbers of grants had been offered on a to start with-arrive, very first-serve basis, which might have favored the far more company-savvy functions in Manhattan.
“I have good friends that bars during Manhattan and all of them are nevertheless flourishing,” Robinson stated.
“We will proper this mistaken. I am not likely to settle for Bronx enterprises staying shortchanged, dismissed and denied possibilities,” Gibson added.
Gibson explained she’s looking to get funding restored for homeowners unfairly denied in 2020.
The auditors proposed secondary assessments of all purposes to assure personnel customers are pursuing techniques and pinpointing eligibility properly.
