When Barbara Wright learned last year of a federal program to aid struggling small businesses like her South Side uniform company, she jumped at the chance to apply for the Small Business Administration loan.

“I thought I could use the loan to help my cash flow,” the soft-spoken Ms. Wright said as she pointed toward racks of uniforms at The Wright Fit, her store at 1805 West 95th Street. “You know you have to pay for this, and when your customers are taking 30 to 120 days to pay their invoices, things can get tight.”

So she went to her bank, ShoreBank, which helped prepare the paperwork, and she sent in her application. It was approved, and Ms. Wright borrowed $35,000, the maximum allowed under a special Obama administration 2009 economic stimulus program for small businesses.

She thought she could use the money to meet her cash needs, but she soon learned that the loan had a catch: It could not be used for operations. In fact, the money could be used only to help pay off a previous loan of $50,000 from ShoreBank.

Federal officials and Congress structured the loan program to help banks as much as to help their customers. The loan to Ms. Wright provided enough money for her to meet her loan payments, but not enough for her to avoid making further cutbacks to her business.

“Things are still tight here,” she said. “The loan really helped the bank, but what about me?”

Ms. Wright is one of many Chicagoans who own struggling small businesses, the kind of companies that create most new jobs around the country. She is among the entrepreneurs that economists and President Obama hope will resume hiring and rescue the economy from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

In fact, Ms. Wright is one of the lucky ones. Thanks to a federal guarantee that her lender will be repaid, she borrowed the $35,000 and appreciated the help. Thousands of other small-business owners say banks will not lend them money at any price — particularly in troubled industries like home building, where credit is crucial and jobs are particularly important to the South Side and other black neighborhoods.

“Getting a loan in this area has been hard for quite a while, and getting a construction loan is nearly impossible,” said William Wolk, president of Team 4, a contractor and real estate development consultant who often works on the South Side.

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