Full Citation
Title: Mapping POC-Owned Business Vulnerability in the Wake of COVID-19
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2021
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Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has hit people of color-(POC-) owned businesses disproportionately harder because they are likely to be concentrated in industries immediately affected by the pandemic (such as arts and entertainment, personal services, construction, repair, transportation, and restaurant industries). The first month of the shelter-in-place wiped out some 3.3 million businesses nationwide (or 22%), including some 440,000 Black-owned (41% drop), 660,000 Latinx-owned (32%), and 230,000 Asian-owned (26%) businesses. These POC-owned businesses also faced systemic inequalities prior to the pandemic, and were discriminated against even in the early stages of seeking financial capital. When controlling for credit score and other business characteristics, bank loan officers are still more likely to ask Black and Latinx owners questions about their personal finances, while offering less help and information on loan terms. When controlling for credit scores, Black start-ups are also more likely to report loan denials than white start-ups. Racism, racial profiling, and violence against POC owners--some of whom have been targeted in their own stores--has been an ongoing issue exacerbated by the pandemic. Due to poor data availability, very little is known about the impacts to POC-owned businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bay Area cities generally do not track their POC-owned businesses systematically, so they know very little about what is happening specifically to entrepreneurs of color. Some cities have been tracking business closures; for instance, the City of Oakland estimated that about 37% fewer businesses were operating in February 2021 compared to February 2020. However, they have not been tracking business closures by race or ethnicity. Given the ongoing challenges in obtaining data on POC-owned business vulnerability, the Urban Displacement Project conducted a multi-stage process that culminated in the creation of an online mapping tool which highlights vulnerable POC-owned businesses and explores the feasibility of a permanent infrastructure for collecting data, monitoring business health, and recommending policies to support POC-owned businesses. We held one-on-one conversations and focus groups with local stakeholders, including city governments, various ethnic chambers, economic development directors, CDFIs and small business associations. The conversations served as ground-truthing exercises, but also helped surface more information about the specific vulnerabilities businesses are experiencing.
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Authors: Schmahmann, Laura; Elias, Renee Roy; Chapple, Karen; Johnson, Tera
Publisher: urbandisplacement.org
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Race and Ethnicity
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