BOSTON — The Small Business Association is out of money for emergency relief loans. Congress is deadlocked over passing more funding but Boston 25 has learned many small business owners still haven’t received their already-approved loans from weeks ago.
The government said all SBA loans would be approved and issued within three days of applying.
“There was always a hiccup, there was always some type of hiccup,” said Jennifer Carlson, the owner of Simply Beautiful Skincare.
Carlson temporarily closed her Holden business on March 13th amid fears of the coronavirus outbreak. That same weekend she went onto the SBA website and applied for a loan. Shortly after, Congress passed emergency funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and Carlson applied for that as well.
Emails show a back and forth with Carlson’s bank about application errors but Carlson says by April 7th everything was submitted on her end. Now, a month after she started the process, Carlson still hasn’t gotten any money.
“The last thing that was sent to me was, ‘we got your application, we approved it, then we sent it off to the SBA’ for I guess another approval distribution,” said Carlson.
Carlson says now that the SBA has run out of money, she worried her application has fallen through the cracks and that her business won’t survive.
“I’m at that possibility of, ‘am I going to be able to open my doors again,” said Carlson. “This is a huge financial hit to me because this is my only source of income.”
Carlson is a single mother of a child with special needs and says she won’t give up on making ends meet.
“You just keep going. You just, you know, you have a kid, you have to take care of, you got to do what you got to do. I don’t want to give up and I don’t want to quit. I hope I don’t have to. I’m going to do everything I can,” said Carlson.
Carlson runs a small business support group for women. She says more attention and support need to be given to “micro” businesses who place a crucial role in fueling the economy.
“We feed our communities," said Carlson. “We feed the small businesses, the bigger small businesses, if you will. I feel the ‘me’s’ out there are swept under the rug.”
The Senate held a “pro forma” session Thursday afternoon to discuss SBA funding but it’s still unclear where negotiations stand.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Small Business Committee, released a statement on Thursday asking for immediate additional funding to help keep small businesses afloat during the crisis.
“I’ve held numerous conference calls with hundreds of small businesses across Massachusetts that tell me that they’ve been in business for decades but it could all end in a matter of weeks without more economic relief,” said Markey. “Congress must ensure that small businesses get the money that they and their workers desperately need."
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