Bed-Stuy Businesses Still Need Pandemic Relief, Advocates Say

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Minority-owned businesses like those in Bed-Stuy are not out of the woods yet when it comes to recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, advocates warned this week.

Local organizations, elected officials and business owners gathered on Tompkins Avenue on Tuesday to caution against optimism that the city and state reopening their economy has marked the end of financial strain from the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for minority-owned small businesses.

Nearly three-quarters of New York City's minority-owned small businesses still fear that they will be forced to close their doors permanently unless they get immediate financial assistance, according to a survey by LISC NYC.

“We all want New York City to recover from this pandemic and economic crisis, and we all want to remain hopeful that soon we’ll be able to turn the corner to a brighter future. But, the longer that our minority-owned small businesses must wait for financial relief, the longer we’ll be waiting for a full and equitable recovery," LISC NYC Executive Director Valerie White said.

Tuesday's rally urged the city, state and federal government to create a program to target financial relief packages to neighborhoods, like Bed-Stuy, that the majority of minority-owned businesses call home. The program should include direct outreach to help businesses access the funds, LISC NYC said.

The resources will help counteract the hurdles many minority-owned businesses faced when trying to access government funds previously set up throughout the pandemic.

Among those businesses was Life Wellness Center, where Tuesday's rally was held. Owner Khadija Tudor said it was only through a grant from LISC, not government relief programs, that her business was able to survive the pandemic.

“Historically, businesses like mine have not directly benefits from government relief programs,” Tudor said. “It’s crucial that all federal, state, and city relief programs are implemented deliberately to empower minority-owned businesses to apply and benefit from the financial relief we so desperately need.”

The streamlined financial relief will also help prevent an influx of big-box retail that might take over vacant storefronts if small businesses are forced to close, advocates said.

A study from Bridge Street Development, who sponsored the rally, found that a third of storefronts across six of Bed-Stuy's commercial corridors are already vacant.

On top of that, 90 percent of the minority-owned businesses still open surveyed by LISC NYC said they expect to close in the next six months if they don't get financial help, according to the organization.

"If we don’t prioritize the recovery of minority-owned small businesses, then commercial corridors will become riddled with blight, more Black, brown, and Latino New Yorkers will find themselves without work, and commercial gentrification with take hold in neighborhoods from Bedford Stuyvesant to Harlem," White said.