PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than two years into the pandemic, we're starting to get a better idea of how cities like Philadelphia have responded to help assist local businesses during the public health crisis.
In recent findings by Pew Trusts, most cities were able to find ways through regulations and permits to help businesses continue to operate.
Sophia Neth, a co-owner of Sophie's Kitchen in South Philadelphia, said they first opened the doors to their Cambodian restaurant in 2019.
"It was good," said Neth. "Then the pandemic hit, and it was bad.”
In April of 2020, Neth, her husband, and two of their children contracted COVID-19, sending them to the ICU.
They closed the restaurant for a couple of months, finally opening back up for takeout when they recovered.
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But as weeks turned to months, they started to have a backlog of bills for utilities, gas, rent, and other payments.
Luckily, Neth said, their landlord worked with them to help them pay their rent when they could.
At one point, they feared they would have to close, but Neth said her family, loyal customers, and financial help from small business loans helped keep them steady.
While doing research to apply for small business loans, a customer came in and told Neth about grants from the City of Philadelphia.
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"It helped a lot," says Neth. "Kind of just kept us not getting kicked out of this place."
She said he helped her apply and get grant money, which in turn helped her start to pay down their list of bills.
"Businesses were really struggling, and they still are," says Karen Fegely, deputy commerce director for the City of Philadelphia.
"However, I think this city jumped into action, and we really were very intentional and made really strong efforts to reach folks with as many resources as we could."
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Fegely said a relief fund was rolled out before the end of March 2020. It forced the Commerce Department and other city offices to quickly work together to find a way to help get the money out to struggling business owners.
She said they worked closely with the Revenue Department for numerous things, to help protect businesses from eviction.
A typical city program could help a struggling business, if they can prove they're current on their taxes, explained Fegely.
She said that throughout the pandemic, they were able to help locate and contact those struggling businesses to provide relief dollars to people at risk of losing them.
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"We don't want to punish somebody, especially who may be behind on their taxes, only because of the pandemic," says Fegely. "We had to really think about businesses and where they were, and [that] our end game was to keep them in business, but also to make sure that they're being good partners with the city.”
The pandemic forced some offices to help make improvements on customer service, offer new ways for people to get into payment plans, and for the Commerce Department to work closely with those other offices to help with assisting business owners, as Pew's findings showed.
Researchers said big changes involved communications between both business owners and other city offices, connecting business owners with financial support, helping them navigate relief funding programs, and launching other programs unique to cities.
However, some businesses had criticized city policies throughout the pandemic for being haphazardly implemented, poorly communicated and, at times, overly restrictive. Some longtime institutions closed permanently, and data showed Black-owned businesses were particularly hit hard.
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The Pew Charitable Trusts interviewed city officials, including Justine Bolkus here in Philadelphia, to gather these findings specific to city governments.
Sophie Bryan, Senior Manager of Pew's Philadelphia Research and Policy Initiative, told KYW Newsradio that while the 14 different cities they looked at had their own, unique problems, they saw similar themes across city leaders.
She said they found that there is a need for real-time data from businesses, and in their research, they saw there was a change in how information was both collected and communicated.
"Breaking down silos between government departments, being more accommodating regarding rules and regulations, particularly for business sectors that were hard hit by the pandemic, and using local resources to fill gaps left by larger federal and state programs," said Bryan.
They also found having this real-time data assisted in better connecting officials to business owners.
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Unique to Philly, Bryan says the city helped businesses when it came to eviction.
"In our research, we found that Philadelphia was the only city that put in place this kind of eviction protection, particularly targeted for one business sector," Bryan explained.
She said she hopes that this information is helpful as the economic recovery from the pandemic continues.
"The number of businesses that we served and connected with during the pandemic was huge," says Fegely.
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"We may have helped them with a grant then. But now the next time the business needs help with something else, whether it's just an issue with doing business in the city or it's ‘Hey, I want to grow and open a new location,' we hope that they will think to call us so we can connect them to whatever resources are out there."
Now, Neth said that they're starting to see business slow down again.
A big struggle at the moment, she said, is finding and hiring people to help with the restaurant, two years after the pandemic shut down their restaurant.
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