Chicago City Wire

On Chicago's South Side, the Auburn Gresham neighborhood has one of the city's highest unemployment rates-- 16.5 percent-- and is best known for its drive by shootings.

It also has the most small businesses in Chicago, according to an analysis of Paycheck Protection Program loan reporting by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Chicago City Wire reviewed data on all loans of $25,000 and under and found residents of Auburn Gresham received more of them than any other community in Illinois-- some 10,126 totaling $187,700,977 in U.S. taxpayer cash. 

In fact, Auburn Gresham, pop. 68,761, received 13 times as many loans as it has licensed businesses (744), according to the City of Chicago.

Most of the loans, which averaged $18,537, were to individuals, borrowing as sole proprietors or independent contractors, presumably protecting their own paychecks.

PPP loans are forgiven if the PPP lender concludes the borrower fulfilled the loan terms.

Auburn Gresham wasn't alone in its PPP loan prominence.

Ten Chicago communities received more than ten times as many PPP loans as they have licensed businesses, including Roseland (9,323 loans/$172M), Chatham (9,169/$168M), Austin (7,470/$143M) and South Chicago (6,750/$121M).

All told, communities on Chicago's South Side with a collective 15,409 active business licenses received 89,734 PPP loans totaling $1,589,228,401.

Chicago West Side Communities with 9,167 total business licenses received 37,221 PPP loans totaling $670,504,336.

Those numbers dwarfed the small business PPP loan money received by residents of Chicago's North Side ($429,902,419) and Chicago's Loop ($84,940,342), which have more licensed businesses than the the south and west sides.

The largest under $25,000 lender in Auburn Gresham and Chicago was Capital Plus Financial LLC of Bedford, Tx. near Dallas, according to the SBA.

City-wide, it made 58,687 loans totaling $1.099 billion. Nearly all of them-- 99.8 percent-- were under $25,000.

The SBA fee schedule paid lenders a flat fee of $2,500 for every loan made under $50,000, earning Capital Plus $146,717,500 on its Chicago loans.

All Chicago lenders collectively earned $413,370,000 on their under $25,000 loans in the city of Chicago.

Payroll Protection?

In Auburn-Gresham, Capital Plus made 2,308 loans totaling $44.5 million, or 23 percent of the community's total. 

One of them was to Ankwanique Hill, 33, who lives in the 1300 block of West 72nd Place. He received $20,832, according to the SBA.

City of Chicago records show Hill is a full-time tree trimmer with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, earning $77,376 per year.

Another Capital Plus loan was to Francheska Dills, 35, of the 8000 block of South Wood. She received $20,415 for her "carpet and upholstery cleaning services" business, according to the SBA.

Chicago Police records show Dills was arrested twice this year-- once in January for possession of a controlled substance, and again in June for possession of a firearm without a valid FOID card. A native of Bloomington, Ill., in 2013 Dills was arrested on charges of felony delivery of marijuana, sentenced to 24 months probation and 30 hours of community service.

SBA records show LaNiyah Murphy was 19, a recent graduate of Perspectives H.S. and a freshman at Governors State University in University Park when she received a $20,000 loan from Capital Plus, reporting she was running a "tax preparation services" business.

Murphy was shot and killed in January after an argument in West Pullman.

According to U.S. government payroll data, Alvaro A. Reasnover, 38, is a customer service manager with the U.S. Postal Service, earning $95,218 per year. State voter registration records show he lives in the basement apartment of a two flat in the 7800 block of South Bishop, six blocks west of St. Sabina's Catholic Church.

Last year, Reasnover received a PPP loan of $20,251, according to SBA records, for his "residential property managers" business..His lender was American Lending Center of Long Beach, Calif, which made 16 loans in Auburn Gresham under $25,000, totaling $321,706.

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Which Chicago communities received the most PPP loans?

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loaned U.S. taxpayer money to business owners who promised not to lay off their employees during the government's COVID-19 lockdowns. Where did this money go in Chicago?

Region	Pop.	% of Pop	Biz Lic.	% of BL	Loans	$$$	% of $$
Chicago Loop/Central	93,218	3%	7,258	14%	5,795	$84,940,342	3%
Chicago North Side	1,026,917	38%	20,376	39%	32,598	$429,902,419	15%
Chicago South Side	1,078,674	40%	15,409	30%	89,734	$1,589,228,401	57%
Chicago West Side	481,754	18%	9,167	18%	37,221	$670,504,336	24%
TOTALS	2,680,563	100%	52,210	100%	165,348	$2,774,575,498	100%

Zip	Community	Pop.	Biz Lic.	Loans	$$$
60620	Auburn Gresham	68,761	744	10,126	$187,700,977
60628	Roseland/West Pullman	65,008	699	9,323	$172,060,336
60619	Chatham	61,372	912	9,169	$167,555,352
60644	Austin	45,919	555	7,470	$142,718,864
60617	East Side/Calumet Heights/South Chicago	82,101	851	6,750	$120,724,699
60624	West Garfield Park	35,054	437	6,282	$120,106,207
60651	Humboldt Park	63,679	833	6,260	$116,413,815
60649	South Shore	47,084	530	6,131	$111,361,779
60637	Hyde Park	46,621	498	5,811	$105,907,889
60623	North Lawndale/Little Village	77,732	985	5,398	$100,512,280
60643	Beverly/Washington Heights	48,572	642	5,167	$91,864,273
60636	West Englewood	30,039	495	4,939	$92,816,546
60621	Englewood	26,736	289	4,509	$84,437,494
60653	Oakland/Grand Boulevard	33,574	383	4,319	$77,354,930
60629	Chicago Lawn/West Lawn/Marquette Park	107,930	980	4,178	$73,909,814
60612	East Garfield Park	32,240	1,041	4,124	$75,034,789
60616	Douglas/Chinatown	52,557	1,167	3,624	$47,396,111
60615	Kenwood	41,198	489	3,485	$60,465,416
60639	Hermosa/North Austin	88,515	1,661	3,225	$53,944,223
60609	Back of the Yards/Canaryville	60,551	2,049	3,099	$52,334,384
60652	Ashburn	42,296	511	2,750	$48,853,362
60608	Bridgeport/Pilsen/McKinley Park	80,011	1,684	2,698	$38,713,313
60640	Uptown	69,726	1,191	2,574	$32,916,781
60645	West Ridge	46,924	312	2,538	$34,779,680
60647	Logan Square	85,658	1,981	2,512	$34,411,491
60659	West Ridge	43,843	797	2,468	$31,673,563
60618	Avondale/Bricktown	94,646	1,917	2,300	$30,297,366
60626	Rogers Park	51,017	682	2,099	$29,374,466
60622	Wicker Park/Ukranian Village	52,957	1,674	1,950	$27,362,667
60641	Old Irving Park/Portage Park	70,163	1,116	1,874	$23,860,075
60625	Albany Park/Bowmanville	78,820	1,204	1,832	$22,614,087
60614	Lincoln Park/Old Town	72,391	1,790	1,790	$25,126,505
60634	Dunning/Portage Park	75,604	1,010	1,753	$21,273,546
60610	Near North/Gold Coast	40,954	1,072	1,729	$27,516,401
60660	Edgewater	45,131	567	1,538	$19,631,785
60613	Wrigleyville/Buena Park	51,399	1,068	1,523	$19,256,347
60657	Lake View	70,489	1,493	1,492	$18,947,165
60630	Jefferson Park/Mayfair	55,692	902	1,435	$17,010,497
60632	Archer Heights/Brighton Park	86,715	1,411	1,415	$20,249,642
60607	West Loop/Greektown	30,306	1,489	1,408	$21,523,124
60611	Mag Mile/Streeterville	33,937	1,926	1,242	$18,238,109
60605	South Loop/Dearborn Park	30,950	942	1,085	$15,632,436
60638	Clearing	57,057	728	1,064	$15,893,080
60642	Goose Island/River West	18,480	821	1,042	$15,055,333
60656	Oriole Park/Union Ridge/Big Oaks	28,982	230	1,039	$11,519,711
60654	River North	20,812	1,427	973	$14,478,119
60601	Loop/Randolph-Lake	14,513	1,306	800	$11,691,616
60646	Sauganash	29,043	434	782	$9,400,311
60602	Loop/Washington-Madison	1,596	546	737	$10,288,506
60633	Hegewisch/South Deering	12,720	99	728	$12,863,774
60631	Edison Park/Norwood Park	28,864	417	575	$6,932,572
60606	Loop-Wacker Drive	3,204	1,330	572	$8,753,101
60655	Mt. Greenwood	27,771	248	449	$6,765,230
60661	West Loop- Clinton/Jefferson	10,734	627	436	$6,054,955
60603	Loop/Monroe-Adams	1,186	688	418	$5,936,143
60604	Loop/Jackson-Van Buren	729	330	339	$5,060,461

Sources: City of Chicago; U.S. Small Business Administration