FERGUSON, Mo. — A family restaurant near the center of where much of the violence in this city has occurred is still open, thanks in part to a $5,000 0% loan from Alliance CU.
Despite the nighttime violence subsiding and now only organized daily protests filling the streets, the family restaurant is still suffering from a loss of dinner trade due to the civil unrest, explained Frank Evans, Alliance's human resource director.
"You can imagine how hard it is for a restaurant to make it only with the lunch trade," Evans said.
The eatery is one of eight businesses so far that have taken advantage of the $215 million credit union's special 0%, $5,000 maximum loan for up to 24 months. No payment is required for 45 days.
The credit union decided that it needed to move quickly to help local businesses suffering through the daily rebuilding of setting up and restocking shelves, re-boarding windows and cleaning up their storefronts — and to provide cash to get them through a drop in business.
Alliance CU's Jennings, Mo., office touches the border of Ferguson and the city of Jennings. The civil unrest in this St. Louis suburb began Aug. 9 when white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
Evans said the loan is helping many small businesses calm their nerves and make it through the short-term crisis to focus on the future.
"All the businesses we have talked with have been extremely positive about this situation," explained Evans. "They said they would eventually figure a way to get back to normal. What they are grateful for is that the loan gives them time to figure out a long-term solution. Hopefully the money will prevent some businesses from making poor short-term decisions."
Evans said he learned that a group of banks will soon offer this troubled community loans similar in structure to Alliance's 0% loan.
"But I have heard those loans could be a week or two away. With our offer, we've been able to go from application to disbursement in 30 minutes. People need money now. We are also an SBA lender, so as these shops need business loans to rebuild and grow their business, we will be right there with them."
As this community gets back on its feet, Evans again is thankful the credit union has been unharmed. All around Alliance's office in the chaos that followed, businesses have broken windows, knocked-down doors, and one is even burned to the ground.
"Our full dumpster, every morning following the night's chaos, was a clear sigh to the credit union of what just missed us," said Evans, who understands it would not take much to spark riots in a town that remains on edge. "All it would take is one wrong event or a bad news update on the shooting that upsets this community to spark trouble."
Looking back on what happened in Ferguson and the contributions of the credit union, Evans said he is proud that the CU's Jennings office was only closed for two days during the height of the chaos and that staff wanted to get back to work as soon as they could to help the community.
"We wanted the people here to know they could count on the credit union," said Evans. "We wanted them to know they had access to their money, to be able to deposit a paycheck, get a loan... We wanted to provide as much stability here as we could. This town has had enough to worry about."
