At a telephone town hall Tuesday afternoon, a group of D.C. leaders spoke on plans to aid businesses and workers during the COVID-19 public health crisis, and to help them rebuild afterward — with an emphasis on equity.
Ashley Emerson, the executive director of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of African American Affairs, said, “We have seen disparities in the African American community around health and education and economics.”
Speaking of the planning process for the recovery from the health crisis, she said, “There is no better time than now to discuss equity,” adding that her office had spoken with the White House, the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups.
“Coronavirus does not discriminate; past policies have,” said Andre Perry, a scholar-in-residence at American University, a member of the Reopen DC committee, a fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities”
African American businesses and neighborhoods are the first to suffer in a crisis and the last to recover, Perry said, pointing out that about 49% of black businesses survived the 2008 Great Recession, as opposed to 60% of white-owned businesses.
“If there is to be any truth to the idea that we are all in this together,” Perry said, “cities must step up now.”
His suggestions for city governments included “an express commitment to businesses owned by people of color” in contracting, tax incentives on onramps to quality jobs and other examples. He cited New Orleans as a city that has done an impressive job with black- and brown-owned businesses.
Kristi Whitfield, director of the Department of Small and Local Business Development, added that the inequities reached into the business community, as well. “We know that people have access-to-capital issues,” Whitfield said. “We know this is an issue. … We know, in the recovery, [it’s] going to be essential.”
Whitfield said longtime business owners were calling for help for the first time ever. She said it was more important than ever to do that. “Now is the time to let your guard down and call and ask for help,” Whitfield said, adding, “The next phase of funding has to be different.”
Federal response
Perry said Congress needed to provide for federal agencies that work with black-owned businesses. In the last iteration of the relief bill, he said, the Minority Business Development Agency only got $10 million out of a $2 billion project. “That’s inexcusable,” he said.
Perry added that D.C.’s status, where it’s not counted as a state but as a territory in terms of coronavirus relief funding, is hurting the District. “We’re bootstrapping as much as we can,” Perry said. “At some point, folks need to stand up.”
He compared the current crisis to the Great Depression and the 2008 housing crisis and said the only real solution was a structural one. “We are so focused on the crisis that we ignore the structural fix. … D.C. residents will not get what they want unless there is a demand. And that demand must address the structural inequalities at the federal level.”
‘Make the call’
Whitfield added that banks “have been amenable” to working out arrangements with small business owners who explain their problems. “The banks are aware” of the health crisis, she said. “Call up the bank and say the truth: ‘I don’t have it. I can’t pay.’”
Perry agreed: “Make the call. Because if you don’t, you could find yourself out of business permanently.”
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