News

(PHOTO: SBAN members in an Anti-Displacement Working Group)

In this first SBAN Member News Roundup, we highlight members in the news and report on their diverse anti-displacement efforts. There’s so much important and innovative work happening in our network, we wanted to create a way to share more of it.

Awards

Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community in Chicago, received the Mayor’s Medal of Honor, given to individuals and organizations who have demonstrated a passionate commitment to bettering the lives of all who reside in the city. Grace is also a member of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community engagement council.

New Publications, Presentations & Other Resources

Erualdo González Romero, professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton, published a new edited book, Gentrification, Displacement, and Alternative Futures (Taylor & Francis), in which he has a chapter about commercial gentrification in Santa Ana, California.

Patria Román-Velázquez, founder and chair of trustees at Latin Elephant in London and Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative Industries at Kings College, published the article “Resisting gentrification, reclaiming urban spaces: Latin urbanisms in London” in the Journal of Urbanism. Román-Velázquez also delivered a presentation at Northwestern University’s Center for Latinx Digital Media’s Virtual Seminar Series entitled “Latin Americans in London: Social and digital activism against gentrification.”

Yessica Holguin, executive director of the Center for Community Wealth Building in Denver, co-wrote an article for Nonprofit Quarterly entitled “Capital Availability Without Access: An Economic Justice Paradox of Our Time,” in which the authors discuss how to restructure capital systems so resources that aim to boost business ownership and wealth in BIPOC communities do so.

Small Business Majority partnered with the U.S. Small Business Administration to host “The Bottom Line” webinar series, which aims to address timely issues facing small businesses and connect them with SBA resources and tools. Small Business Majority also released a report on a survey of small business owners and managers nationwide about their current business conditions and how they have benefited from federal relief programs. The New York Times cited the report in an article about the challenges small businesses face post-pandemic accessing capital.

The Urban Institute released a report, co-authored by Brett Theodos, entitled Assessing the Small-Business Landscape in Metropolitan Kansas City, which found that small business support gaps persist for younger and smaller firms and that loan capital is not equitably distributed by place and by race.

Wealth-Building Efforts

FOX 9 Minneapolis featured Kenya McKnight-Ahad, CEO of the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance (BWWA), in a story about the organization’s investments in Black women entrepreneurs through commercial property acquisition in north Minneapolis. See a summary of BWWA’s work in the latest SBAN newsletter.

Invest Atlanta partnered with United Way of Greater Atlanta to launch the Atlanta Recovery Loan Program, which offers low-cost loans to help small businesses grow ownership of tangible assets, build wealth, and avoid displacement. The $5.7 million program is supported by Wells Fargo.

Latresa McLawhorn Ryan, executive director of the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, was a guest on the In Solidarity public health podcast, discussing the organization’s efforts to address the racial wealth divide.

Increasing Access to Capital

1863 Ventures, in partnership with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, announced their first round of investment recipients of the $1.25 million Inclusive Innovation Equity Impact Fund, which is designed to address the gap in capital for businesses that would otherwise not receive early-stage funding through conventional financing. 1863 Ventures also released a report on how early-stage businesses have used its new 1863 Fund investments to grow.

Capital Impact Partners in Virginia and Detroit has merged with CDC Small Business Finance and Ventures Lending Technologies, both in San Diego, to create Momentus Capital, a new effort to provide people of color with access to capital and opportunities.

Northwest Side Community Development Corporation in Milwaukee will share a $5 million investment from Northwestern Mutual to increase access to capital for Black business owners. It will partner with Legacy Redevelopment Corporation, another Black-led community development financial institution.

Equitable Development & Revitalization

Mosaic Development Partners and their redevelopment work in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard was featured in The New York Times article “Black Developers Elevate Community Needs in Major Projects.”

The New Kensington Community Development Corporation in Philadelphia has received $1.5 million in state funding to redevelop Kensington Avenue, including acquisition of commercial property.

Destination Crenshaw secured $20 million in New Market Tax Credits for its public arts corridor project in South Los Angeles centered on Black art and culture, which includes sustaining small businesses.

Anti-Displacement Policy & Advocacy

Rudy Espinoza, executive director of Inclusive Action in Los Angeles, spoke to ABC7 Eyewitness News about SB 972, a state bill to change the food retail code so street vendors can more easily get permits. Inclusive Action is co-founder of the LA Street Vendor Campaign, which helped legalize street vending at the local and state level and is now focusing on equitable implementation of new vending rules.

An article in local outlet Billy Penn about the history of activism against development in Philadelphia’s Chinatown included input from the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation about a proposed new Sixers stadium and capping the Vine Street Expressway, which was built through the middle of Chinatown in 1980.

Denver Economic Development and Opportunity and the Center for Community Wealth Building are partnering on a new Family Business Preservation Program to secure stability for family-owned microbusinesses in neighborhoods where they are most vulnerable to displacement.

Commercial Property Acquisition & Community Ownership

Los Angeles organizations Inclusive Action and Little Tokyo Service Center were featured in a KCRW-FM story about their Community Owned Real Estate (CORE) project in Boyle Heights, which is designed to fight gentrification-fueled displacement. SBAN Director Willow Lung-Amam was also quoted.