Some places were able to get PPP loans at the beginning of the pandemic, but for most of these venues, that money was gone in a month of two. Venues have been shut down for almost a year now. People are going into huge amounts of debt, many of these folks are afraid they will never be able to financially recover from this, let alone keep their venues open. We have got to do something, and we ve got to do it now, said San Francisco Small Business Commission President Sharky Laguna.
Although Congress recently passed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package, which included $15 billion set aside for theaters and entertainment venues, Haney said the funds are likely insufficient to prevent permanent closures.
CAPITAL & MAIN PERSPECTIVE Long before the pandemic hit, California’s homeless issues were startlingly obvious.
Even as state politicians and city leaders ignored the problems or placed them well down their lists of priorities, the unhoused population, particularly in larger cities, was growing apace. By 2019, California’s homeless numbers were estimated at more than 151,000 having risen by 16.4% from just one year earlier.
The fallout from COVID-19, with its job losses and crushing financial pressures, is expected to push those numbers dramatically higher when the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development releases its Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, likely later this month. Already, though, 2020 will be recalled in part as a year in which homelessness became the object of significant attention in California, with initiatives operating on several tracks simultaneously.