For Restaurant Owners, Federal Stimulus Loans Are a Mixed Blessing at Best | Eater SF

"Operating as a Vietnamese food kiosk in the UC Berkeley student union, Hang Truong's Noodle Girl has been shut since mid-March when the university sent students home and she can't access the building; March and April—normally her busiest months for catering—saw all clients cancel, leaving only a limited amount of food delivery business. Truong, a La Cocina incubator alum, applied twice for a Paycheck Protection Program loan and was finally approved for roughly half of the $25,000 she requested, but says the loan's confusing forgiveness terms have left her scared and unsure how or when to use the money. She argues that the eight-week spending window is impractical for her current situation and that a modest extension to something like six months would make the funds far more useful, since she plans to move the restaurant in July to the old Tamarindo Antojeria space near Oakland's Chinatown and would prefer to wait to use the money then—yet she fears that declining the loan now would mean losing her only chance at government relief." - Luke Tsai