New data shows small businesses in communities of color had unequal access to federal COVID-19 relief

New data shows small businesses in communities of color had unequal access to federal COVID-19 relief

Congress’s major COVID-19 relief program for small businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), has so far distributed 5 million loans across the country. That distribution, however, has not been equal. Newly released data offers a comprehensive snapshot of how access to PPP loans varied considerably based on neighborhood demographics, with small businesses in majority-white neighborhoods receiving PPP loans more quickly than small businesses in majority-Black and majority-Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods.