Jewish Free Loan Association helps small business, individuals struggling during pandemic with interest-free loans
Local non-profit Jewish Free Loan Association is offering zero interest loans to small businesses and also to individuals affected by the pandemic.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Jewish Free Loan Association provides interest-free emergency loans to small businesses and individuals to help keep them up and running during tough times.
Freelance photographer Mik Milman's business came to a halt during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I photograph large groups of people for a living, so it's pretty tough," said Milman. "I spent over 10 years building my business. It was going really well and then COVID came about and just like that I lost pretty much all of my work."
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The Jewish Free Loan Association gave Milman a loan to help him stay afloat. The non-profit JFLA is offering zero interest loans to small businesses and also to individuals affected by the pandemic.
"The people who are coming to us, they're just in desperate situations," said Rachel Grose, Director of JFLA. "In general our emergency loans have always been there to help people get through really a onetime hardship, their car broke down they need help repairing it, they have medical bills that they can't pay, but now it's just compounded."
One of those loans went to Sean Rose, who had unpaid medical expenses on top of his acting studio's financial struggles.
"I had medical expenses and this loan was really able to help me out so that I could concentrate on my business and the acting studio when the pandemic start and so a lot businesses were hit hard and struggled so it was really helpful that way," said Rose.
He says the zero interest loan helps him focus on his business, and not how to pay back what could include a very high interest payment.
"It took the stress off because having an interest free loan you don't have to worry about incurring interest and where you're going to get funds to pay for the interest," said Rose.
Grose says individuals can receive up to a $6,000 loan with the signature of a guarantor, and you do not need to be Jewish to apply for a loan.
"We're really here to work with you and get the money in your hands as quickly as possible," said Grose.
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