I urge your support for the forgiveness of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) provided by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Our small family restaurant has been thriving for 20 years! We have had great success growing and becoming a hometown staple. Our community shows us tremendous support.
During COVID, we had no choice but to comply with restrictions or risk closure. In order to stay afloat, we had to get creative and make many changes. We really took a blow with lower sales, but we still had rent and employees to pay. We were offered the EIDL as a way for our restaurant to survive. Our thoughts were- take the loan or close your business and lose the 20 year American Dream that you have given everything for. As a recipient of an EIDL, I am deeply grateful for the assistance it provided during a time of economic uncertainty and distress. However, the ongoing challenges for businesses impacted by Covid , have made it increasingly difficult to repay the loan required to feed our families. Despite best efforts, the financial burden of the EIDL has become overwhelming and is hindering ability to recover and thrive. I understand the importance of responsibility and the need to balance priorities (as we have always done), but I urge you to consider the significant impact that EIDL forgiveness would have on individuals and small businesses across the nation. Forgiving these loans would not only provide immediate relief to struggling borrowers but also stimulate economic growth and resilience in our communities. Furthermore, forgiveness of EIDLs would demonstrate Congress’s commitment to supporting small businesses and individuals during times of crisis, reaffirming our nation’s values of compassion and solidarity. I respectfully request your leadership and advocacy in championing EIDL forgiveness legislation. If this isn’t forgiven, millions of small business owners are in jeopardy of losing their homes and SS retirement over trying to survive a mandatory shutdown and many have already lost everything! We have always been in good standing with SBA and any loan we’ve ever had up until this. It does feel like being backed into a corner because business owners were under duress. Your support on this issue would be instrumental in alleviating financial hardship for countless Americans and ensuring a more equitable and prosperous future for all. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and millions are waiting for your positive response.
My wife and I, both small business owners are in the same boat! It sucks to see celebrities and politicians who are millionaires get free money and we are stuck with the EIDL loan AND the bill (through taxes) for their free money! Hopefully this will change
It has been so sad to read stories of those in their 60s and 70s that have always done things the right way, (repaying loans, filing taxes, running honest business operations), until they were forced into accepting a loan to protect everything they’ve worked their entire lives for, and now have gone bankrupt, SS wages are garnished, and some homeless because of this terrible situation. Something needs to be done quickly to help these business owners! This is the heart of America!
We are a small business also who was forced to take an EIDL to survive. We are directly tied to the hospitality industry and we’re about 90% shut down. Please forgive these loans!
As a hair salon who needed to take the EIDL because of closures. Covid Era effects on business didn’t end when we re opened. It still has not ended. Clients are still calling out due to Covid and inflation has killed our cash flow. Please forgive these loans to show support for Main Street. Eliminate the interest being accrued as well.
I completely agree! At the beginning of the Pandemic my Husband and I owned a thriving business. We managed two cafes in Columbus, Ohio and operated our home base, a Deli and Commercial bakery in a very small Rural community just to the North of Columbus. The main focus of the Cafes and deli was catering and dine-in quick service foods. The mandatory shut downs immediately shuttered both cafes and greatly affected the deli. In the first month, what we were expecting to be an all time record month for the company vanished in a blink of an eye. We had devoted our whole life not just to the businesses but to our mission to bring great jobs to rural Ohio. In order to not loose everything, we applied and received every form of Government help available. There was no way we were going to let our team members down. But now, the debt from the EIDL is holding us back from thriving. We lost both cafes and had to sell the deli since the start of the shutdowns. We have worked tirelessly trying to rebound but under the hardships of inflation on top of excess debt we never wanted in the first place, it is smothering our abilities to grow. I can’t get loans because of our debt ratio being demolished by the Huge EIDL. We have paid on the EIDL loan for over a year and all we have accomplished is paying interest. Not one dime has gone to principle! I just got approved for round one of the hardship relief on making these payments. Which I am sure will just make these painful payments last forever.
Please know that the businesses that these loans helped are not out of the woods yet! We are still struggling. But those of us that remain are fighters! Many like us had to literally start at ground zero and rebuild our businesses in a totally new direction being forced to make decisions we would have never made as good business owners. We were in that thrilling part of the cycle where we had made large investments making us cash lean in FULL growth mode! And the Boom! Your closed! Boom! Return all catering deposits! Boom! The hits just kept coming. We went from actively executing a debt payoff to being forced into the biggest loan we had ever taken just to survive.
On a positive note, our employees have stuck with us! They are amazing folks! I do take it very seriously when I take on a debt. I will pay every last bit of that loan if you tell me there is no help. But I have to admit my belief in the American Dream will have been diminished if those of us who have made it our life’s work to provide jobs, have to give up ALL that we dreamed we could provide to our communities due to this weight that was forced upon us. To be told there’s no relief while those who have NO investment or plan for bettering our communities live a life of ease paid for by us shatters my pride in America. I have been wanting to say all these things for so long! THANK YOU for asking and this forum! THANK YOU for caring! Please help us thrive again! You won’t regret it! Business owners do amazing things when given the right opportunities.
Wow Tricia, thank you so much for telling your story. I really feel your sincerity and see your drive to fight through this! We need a miracle. What many people don’t know, is that even with an LLC, these loans, over a certain amount, are guaranteed by the owner’s personal assets (because this was so new, many accountants did not share the severity of what is at stake). That means for a lot of us, that are barely able to make these additional large payments, losing our family home is a possibility. It feels like there is no way out.
***What many people don’t know, is that even with an LLC, these loans, over a certain amount, are guaranteed by the owner’s personal assets. In our case, our accountant did not share with us the severity of what was at stake, and assumed it could also be forgiven like the PPP). That means for a lot of us, that are barely able to make these additional large payments, losing our family home is a possibility. It feels like there is no way out.
We need forgiveness also! We had to close our business Due to Bidens and Newsoms new laws! We are now just living with only our SS retirement
We work so hard all our lifes to lose everything !
Leticia
So well said. Prior to Covid, we were operating for 2.5 years and experiencing tremendous growth in the holistic wellness space. Then Covid hit and it decimated our business with the lockdowns, busines shutdown and being in a city/state (Jersey city, NJ) that delayed reopening businesses for as long as they could. While I appreciate the state and Federal assistance, it was not enough to maintain paying our employees, our high rent, and expenses all while our revenue went down to 25% of what it was for about 2 years. I was reluctant to take on a SBA $150,000 loan, and looking back on it, it has crippled us going forward in so many ways. $30,000 in interest payments while zero pay down of the principle. Small business owners had to do everything they could to keep their businesses afloat, and the economy currently is not in a good place for us to thrive- having debt buyrden like this makes the hole even deeper.
I ask the SBA to consider forgiving these EDIL loans that were taken on for emergency purposes during a time where we were being lied to by our leaders.