NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration visited New Orleans businesses as some people continue to struggle to recover from the pandemic and Hurricane Ida.
SBA leader Isabella Casillas Guzman wants to ensure that minority-owned businesses can take advantage of opportunities related to the $ 1 trillion infrastructure package and other resources as they work to recover. Hurricane Ida hit the New Orleans area as the COVID-19 health crisis had already crippled parts of the economy.
“The bottom line is our black-owned businesses need capital, they need technical assistance, those networks that can support them in their journey of entrepreneurship and they need market access opportunities and especially when it’s the SBA we’re talking about access to government contracts,” said Guzman.
She participated in a roundtable discussion with business owners and leaders of organizations like the Urban League of Louisiana and GNO Inc.
Congressman Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, took part in the discussions.
“If you ever want to cure the ills of our economy, of our communities, you’ve got to create opportunities for people to do better,” said Carter.
After the meeting, she visited some small businesses including Café’ Reconcile on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.
Judy Reese Morse, President, and CEO of the Urban League of Louisiana appreciates Guzman’s commitment to helping minority-owned businesses.
“She talked a lot about a Community Navigator pilot program which is partnering with the Urban League of Louisiana and others to go deep into communities across Louisiana to make those connections, to deal with those issues, to really help small businesses to thrive,” said Morse.
Hecht said preparing small businesses in advance of natural disasters is important.
“What I think is even more interesting is the idea of preparing looking businesses, looking minority-owned businesses, so they are already ready, already vetted, have the capacity so that when a disaster strikes they are ready to go and serve as a prime or a sub; that’s a way we can make sure that the billions of dollars that get spent after disasters actually ends up with local companies,” said Hecht.
And it is not just businesses that looked to the SBA during the pandemic and in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, but also thousands of homeowners.
“We know that people are still suffering from past storms, people are still rebuilding from past storms and before you know it we’ll be back in hurricane season again, so the mission has to be to expeditiously get these resources into the hands of people who need them most, make it easier for them to access,” said Carter.
The SBA says it has approved over a billion dollars in loans for Louisiana businesses and residents affected by Hurricane Ida.
“We did provide a significant amount of loans on the ground for our small businesses impacted by Ida.”
And amid the Ida recovery, Carter says he is working in Congress to address rising flood insurance rates related to FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 Program.
“In some cases, people go from $500 to $2,000 or $3,000 and those are game-changers,” he said.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.
Copyright 2022 WVUE. All rights reserved.
