Boston Offers Critical Lending to Minority-Owned Small Businesses

Articles | March 14 2017
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By Oscar Perry Abello

Eight dollars. That’s the median net worth for native-born black households in the Boston metropolitan area. Median net worth for white households in Boston is $247,500.

The racial wealth gap is at the root of many problems in racially segregated cities, and Boston, despite huge demographic changes since 1980, remains a segregated city. In that year, the city was more than 90 percent white. By the 2010 census, that percentage was down to 75 percent. Current available census data puts Boston at 53 percent white. And yet, white households in Boston are still most likely to be living in a neighborhood that is at least 80 percent white, regardless of income.

A year ago, the city put forth the Boston Small Business Plan, outlining the situation facing its small businesses. Support for minority, immigrant and women entrepreneurs was priority number one in that plan, which called out racial wealth disparity as a major factor in preventing Boston’s growing percentage of households of color from earning their fair share of small business loans or revenues. (Read more)