City shifting business-loan funds to ease residents’ bills

In April, the City of Little Rock announced it would give $500,000 in forgivable loans to small businesses struggling during the pandemic, but city officials now plan to reallocate half those federal funds to residents struggling to pay rent and utilities.

The program called the Small Business Emergency Assistance Program allocated $5,000 loans to nearly four dozen “mom and pop” businesses in Little Rock.

Several business owners described the grants as minimal, but added that they helped in a difficult time.

Now, nine months into the covid-19 pandemic, city leaders saw a rising need for those funds elsewhere.

“We took a portion of that and we reallocated those funds — 250,000 — to go to assist people that were being evicted, people that couldn’t pay their utility payments and everything like that,” said Kevin Howard, director of Housing and Neighborhood programs for the city of Little Rock. “So we saw a need in that since we had pretty much went through and had two rounds of funding under the Small Business Emergency Assistance Program.”

So far, Little Rock has given out 44 loans to small businesses in the city, Howard said. The loans, paid for with money given to the city through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed by Congress in March, were originally meant to go to Little Rock businesses.

Back in April, Howard said the program was set up to help small businesses that have been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic and may not have had access to federal assistance.

The funds are loans, but they are forgivable at zero interest if businesses can show jobs have been created, restored or retained after one year. So far, the city has given away $212,000 in small business loans, Howard said.

To be eligible, businesses had to have 20 or fewer employees and must have already been a registered business in the city limits of Little Rock.

Allicia Talbert, co-owner of Talbert Lawn Service, said she spent the $5,000 loan on numerous bills her business has racked up during the pandemic, such as her storage and utility fees. “I couldn’t have asked for more. It was what we needed, I’m going to be real honest, it was what we needed,” Talbert said.