*Employers with a criminal background are being excluded from the stimulus package intended to stabilize the nation’s economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As noted by blavity.com, the Collateral Consequences Resource Center has issued guidance prohibiting business owners with a criminal background from receiving financial assistance from the stimulus bill.
Via Blavity:
The guidance excludes nearly one in three adults which, according to The Sentencing Project, equates to as many as 100 million Americans. It also excludes businesses with owners who have more than a 20% stake in a company and a criminal background, including probation and parole. The guidance could also disqualify owners who have been convicted of a felony or pleaded guilty to felony charges in the past five years.
Even more troubling is the impact the exclusion may have on the Black community.
Meanwhile, advocates are urging Black business owners to apply for stimulus loans.
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Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin has launched an effort called ‘Buy Black Thursday’ which encourages people to support minority business owners while spreading the word about what they have to offer. https://t.co/FEX2ACU7Hd
— WSYX ABC 6 (@wsyx6) April 23, 2020
“These are unprecedented times,” says Randy Hughes, founder and CEO of Counting Pennies, LLC. “The loan is free of much of the red tape associated with traditional loans, and the funds are being provided quickly, within 3 business days in many cases. If ever there was a time to be proactive in applying for assistance, this is that time.”
But opednews.com notes, “The brutal truth is that long before COVID, and talk of small business stimulus packages, Black businesses were a specially endangered breed when it came to getting a dime out of banks and the government.”
The Small Business Administration has already started awarding COVID-19 stimulus dollars to small businesses.
Cannabis businesses, however, were not included in the latest stimulus bill, MarketWatch.com reports.
“There is quite a bit of lobbying,” National Cannabis Industry Association board member Kris Krane said in a phone interview with MarketWatch. “This is the first time I’ve seen the federal trade associations for cannabis rolling in the same direction. From what I’ve seen, everyone is working closely together.”
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