Few Brooklyn Small Businesses Get Federal Loans, Survey Says

Small businesses in Brooklyn haven't been getting much help from the federal government's COVID-related loans, according to a survey released Monday of more than 300 businesses by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

At least 84% of businesses in the borough that applied to the Payroll Protection Program had not received any money as of Friday.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of success stories where businesses applied, they got approved, and they’ve also got funding in hand," said Randy Peers, the chamber's president and CEO. "It just doesn’t happen,"

Peers said the numbers were even lower for establishments owned by women or people of color — some 90 percent of those had not received grants as of Friday. 

The owner of a hair salon in Williamsburg, Jill Syslo, said her vendors, friends, and even her landlord had urged her to apply for the federal Paycheck Protection Program, as if it could solve all of her problems.

“Everybody and their mother was like ‘Oh, my gosh, the PPP program! It’s for you," Syslo said.

So she applied once her bank, CHASE, finally offered the loan. But she has heard nothing in the two weeks since then.

Congress and President Donald Trump are negotiating how to extend the program since it ran out of Monday on April 16.