As the nation recoils from the impact of the pandemic, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC LA) is ensuring that local businesses are doing more than surviving – communities must be thriving.
After a year of stay-at-home orders and numerous shutdowns, hope is on the horizon for small business owners with Los Angeles slowly returning to a new normal. But for many, 2020 was a year of reckoning across racial, wealth, and health divides beyond just the pandemic. COVID-19 exacerbated economic disparities that have been historically prevalent in the beloved communities that fought to prevail during the pandemic. In particular, diverse business owners who have faced long-standing barriers to traditional loans and capital faced the brunt of COVID-19 business closures.
That is why for LISC LA, 2021 has been the year of the Black Economic Development Agenda: our initiative to focus resources and programs on closing the racial wealth gap and empowering Black communities across LA County.
With the help of community and financial partners such as Kaiser Permanente, Comerica Bank, Citibank, James Irvine Foundation, and Wells Fargo, LISC LA has been able to shape impactful programs that forge resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity.
As a historically divested community, barriers to equity in South LA were only made more apparent during the pandemic. Residents of the South LA area are disproportionately people of color who face higher than average rates of unemployment. However, this is indicative of a larger racial wealth gap across the nation: though BIPOC-owned businesses make up 40% of all American businesses, their ability to grow has been limited by barriers such as access to capital, smaller loan amounts, and higher interest rates than those faced by white-owned businesses.
To counter the wealth disparities faced by diverse communities and business owners, LISC LA has already deployed over $10M across South LA communities to support its small business owners, working families, and community-based organizations. By strengthening local small businesses, investing in resilient districts, and empowering and connecting talent to essential workforce opportunities, LISC LA is working to preserve lively communities with diverse businesses like the Crenshaw Corridor.
The 1.3 mile stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard is also known as the Main Street of Black Los Angeles, and is home to Black-owned businesses like the catering business Southern Taco Inc. – one of the many Destination Crenshaw Thrives Program recipients supported by LISC LA.
For Tieshae Huntsman, the founder of Southern Taco Inc., the pandemic was both a blessing and a curse. While keeping operations running during the entire pandemic was a challenge she couldn’t have foreseen, Huntsman stepped up to assist those in her community by providing over 1,000 meals a week to the elderly and those in transitional homes. With the help of funds from LISC LA, she was able to keep her payroll going for staff members who depended on Southern Taco Catering as their sole source of income.
Jeffrey Miles, owner and Vice President of Miles Copy Center, also knows what it’s like to work at the center of the Crenshaw community. His small business has been there for six years, but due to scarce foot traffic during the pandemic, they lost about half of their business revenue. However, with the help of LISC LA funding, they were able to stay open and support their customers.
“LISC LA provided us with a grant to maintain our lease on our property and maintain our employees,” Miles said. “We used the money to keep the payroll going and help buy supplies for the company to keep its doors open here at Miles Copy Center.”
As Los Angeles reopens, both Huntsman and Miles look toward the future. Huntsman hopes to provide economic growth for her community by employing more youth and individuals who were recently released from prison. In doing so, she wants to show the power of what a home-grown business from Crenshaw can achieve – one that was founded in the heart of LA. Miles expects more foot traffic through the Crenshaw Corridor and looks forward to hiring several more employees across the next year so their storefront can continue to grow.
To facilitate small business support during the pandemic, LISC LA also partnered with the Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation (VSEDC). For decades, the community-based nonprofit has leveraged funding from private sector and government entities to revitalize the Vermont Slauson community. During the pandemic, the two organizations partnered to create new programs that protect vulnerable legacy businesses in South LA.
In January, VSEDC worked with LISC LA to launch the Legacy Business Technical Assistance Fund to support over 40 businesses in South LA – ranging from restaurants to yoga studios. As cornerstones of the community, these legacy businesses have been present to serve the community for generations. The program sought to not only create generational wealth and bring innovative models to business ownership, but to also reconsider how we think about wealth in communities that face long-standing racial disparities.
As a coffee lover, Anthony Jolly founded the Hot and Cool Cafe three years ago to provide vegan food and drinks to his community members in the midst of a food desert. Amidst COVID-19, his business was devastated, but Jolly says he chose to stay open despite the difficulties to provide his community with a source of normalcy. Through both financial and technical assistance from the Legacy Business Technical Assistance Fund, Anthony ensured each one of his employees that they could weather the storm of COVID-19 together.
“When [VSEDC and LISC LA] reached out to us and said they had a grant, it gave us hope knowing that we can continue to hire young people, give them jobs, and continue to do the work in the community,” Anthony said.
One business that’s been operating for over 20 years is the Freeway Easy Traffic and Driving School. As a Black and woman-owned business, the driving school worked in the community through a program to help foster youth earn their driver's license.
But when the pandemic struck, owner Dalonna Diaz said that there were no more behind the wheel lessons, in-person traffic school, or trips to the DMV – leading to a loss in revenue for her business. However, LISC LA and VSEDC quickly stepped in to ensure that Dalonna could keep the doors open for her small business.
“Vermont Slauson provided us with a grant, which helped us catch up on back rent – taking off stress for me and my business,” Dalonna said.
As more Angelenos begin to leave their homes this summer, Dalonna hopes to hire a new female driving instructor to help customers safely navigate the road. She also plans on purchasing new vehicles for her driving school, and most importantly, to grow her venture into a million-dollar business.
Both economic inclusion projects – Destination Crenshaw Thrives and the VSEDC Legacy Business Technical Assistance Fund – align with both local and national LISC efforts to close the racial gap.
LISC’s work doesn’t stop here: Project 10X is a $1 billion effort launched by LISC to address racial gaps across the nation. As we look to uplifting vibrant communities on their path to recovering from the pandemic, ongoing investment and support will be essential to address the deep history of discrimination that has led to many of the area’s challenges today.
As we look towards the rest of 2021 and the years to come, LISC LA is proud to bring the equity it envisions closer to home – starting with our communities right here in South Los Angeles.