Contributed photo
Duncan Goodall.
Koffee? and Koffee Katering owner Duncan Goodall submitted the following opinion article about the struggles that small business owners are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It goes without saying that we are at an unprecedented time in history. With the increasingly dire warnings about mingling and the closing of Yale, small businesses in New Haven are not just struggling, we’re panicking.
The recent communication from the Department of Labor offers guidance on what an employee can do if they contract the virus, but there is shockingly little information for employers who are scrambling to pay their own bills and desperate to ensure that their employees are able to cover basic necessities.
Last week’s letter from Mayor Elicker said, “If you are an employer, you can require you employees to stay home if they are sick with COVID-19. However, you should issue the employee an Unemployment Separation Package.” And “If you are an employer and are forced to close your doors for 14 days because an employee is sick and others have to be isolated, you are liable for unemployment benefit charges in the same way you would be for a layoff or a shut down.”
We are required to offer sick pay out of our own pockets, and we have to pay for unemployment benefits… but what if there is no money? Where is this magical money supposed to come from to pay these employee benefits if businesses are closed?
My businesses, Koffee? and Koffee Katering, have taken serious financial hits in recent weeks. Catering is down by more than 90 percent and Koffee? Is officially closed for the foreseeable future. What I do not know is what will happen to my employees.
I have divvied up the food we have in stock to help them feed their households for a few weeks, but with no income coming in I cannot afford more than a token amount of pay to help them pay rent and other expenses.
New Haven is wealthy in entrepreneurial ventures, not-for-profit organizations, cultural experiences, and a remarkable array of foodie opportunities. In addition to having an extraordinary university as our anchor institution, these characteristics are what make our city vibrant and unusual. But every single small business, charity, museum, and restaurant is in a tight and confusing bind right now.
While we understand that decisionmakers are focused on imperatives like how to ensure learning continues and kids are fed in light of closed schools, we ask that our elected authorities please consider stepping up to offer guidance and clarity not just on protocols for individuals who contract COVID 19, but for those small businesses and non-profits that are the backbone of the local economy.
Click here for a story about where to find take-out and how to support small local businesses during the pandemic.
The major landlords in New Haven should forego all residential and commercial rent collection. Not suspend, but forgive. In particular University Properties should lead by example and encourage all commercial landlords to coordinate relief for their tenants. If we are going to solve these problems as a community, some have much greater power to have an immediate and positive impact than others do.
Smaller, " mom and pop" landlords do not have the ability or resources to help in this way, but the multi million dollar corporations that have been attracted to the investment potential of out city must help to preserve it.