“Panic,” is how Joe Sky-Tucker described the sentiment among his low-income clients in late March.
His Seattle-based organization, Business Impact NW, was in a scramble to help clients who often can’t get loans at traditional financial institutions. Unequal access to federal help meant money was getting tighter for the $12 million institution, as it faced mounting funding requests from panicked customers.
“It was so new that everybody was in a panic: ‘What’s going to happen to their business, what’s going to happen across the economy, what’s going to happen from a public health standpoint,’” Sky-Tucker said. “Everyone was just ...