Natural State News

Jeremiah Stark is at the end of his rope. He has tied a knot and is hanging on but is unsure how much longer he can maintain his grip.

Stark is the owner of Stark Brothers Humble Handyman in Little Rock. He has sought government assistance but has found little help and a lot of frustration. It has left him unsure of which way to turn.

“I am a seasonal worker and my season usually starts when COVID-19 hit,” Stark told Natural State News. “So while everyone else is going two months without work, I am now on my sixth month. As of last week ,they do have a system up and running and I did get my second week of unemployment assistance.”

He has operated his business for three years.

“It’s not that it slowed down, the problem was it never started in February like usual,” Stark said. “The season generally ends around Thanksgiving. January/December is absolutely no work at all. February is when work picks up again.”

When the pandemic struck, he had no work and no income.

“How bad did it get? Who really knows because the worst part has not hit yet,” Stark said. “Even without a 24-hour mandatory lockdown, zero businesses were allowed to operate, per the terrible mayor. I am only able to eat because I am on food stamps.”

He was very unhappy with the shutdown order issued by Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott.

“Something that’s crazy and nobody talks about talk about but me, evidently, is our mayor shut the city down immediately,” Stark said. “In fact he would have initiated a 24-hour curfew but the governor would not let him. I’m talking about every one of the mayor’s emergency declarations, on the first line on all of them it says the declaration can and must not interfere with commerce — something he wrote and signed but evidently didn’t read.”

Stark said he has been trying to get assistance from the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

“First they claim self-employed and small business owners just need to wait because they can’t use the regular system to file for unemployment so we have to wait until they set an entirely new system up for us,” Stark said. “Well, that took over a month. You couldn’t get a hold of anybody if you called. If you went down there you literally waited in line for six hours just to be told they can’t help you. E-mail — nothing works, no answers from anybody.”

Division of Workforce Services communications director Zoë Calkins said May 29 the department would have a response. When a reporter checked back, Calkins had changed her tune.

“I apologize. I checked in on this and we will have to respectfully decline to comment,” she said in an email. “Please pass on that if the applicant would like to call our office at 682-2121 or 1-844-908-2178, we will be glad to answer his questions specific to his claim.”

The office of Gov. Asa Hutchinson also did not respond to multiple calls, e-mails and texts.

Stark said he tried Rep. James French Hill’s (R-Ark.) office and while they tried to offer assistance, they couldn’t figure how to navigate the maze. Efforts were made to reach the staffer he had worked with, but he did not respond.

On May 29, a staffer at French Hill's Washington D.C., office said she was glad to hear they had tried to assist him and would be glad to comment.

“We definitely want to speak on this,” she said, and provided contact information for communications director Jeff Naft.

When Naft did not reply, a male staffer later said they could not respond to issues involving individual citizens.

Stark has found such responses repeatedly in the last two months. Such was the case with the Division of Workforce Services.

“Finally, after a month-and-a-half, I got ahold of a lady for the first time. Even more surprising she was completely honest with me,” Stark said. “Mind you this was the 15th [of May]. She told me they had not even been given the criteria for approving applications. Lo and behold they finally got their system set up. All it allows you to do is fill out an application and that’s it.”

He finally received an initial payment, but said he is still waiting for back payments.

“You see, everyone who is accepted for COVID unemployment insurance is supposed to get payments from March to July 29,” Stark said. “Hell, the pandemic is over, things are back to normal almost, and yes they are just now handing out pandemic unemployment insurance. But not the back pay, yet.”

The difficult part, he said, was the mounds and mounds of paperwork he did only to be denied money from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program because he lacks credit.

“Which means I do not use credit cards, nor do I have debt,” Stark said. “Apparently, they tell me that it’s worse than having bad credit. So everyone stay home and we’ll pay you ... as long as you have debt or good credit. I don’t remember them saying the last part.”

Stark also sought assistance from Hutchinson and said he spoke with staffers there trying to get answers. Natural State News also made repeated attempts for information from the governor’s office, once again with little response.

Stark is a district captain and the only state videographer for Convention of States Arkansas. When he mentions that, he said, it does get people’s attention — but there is still no readily available information or assistance.

“In fact there was only one single solitary person that seem to care and literally went well out of their way to help and that was an underling, a new hire, a guy named Blake who is a temp,” he said. “He talked to me every day for four weeks, even went so far as to give me his personal cell phone number. He always answered when I called even if it was just to vent.

“I don’t blame Arkansas unemployment at all for anything. They went above and beyond and did more than was expected for the situation that was thrown on them. I blame whoever was in charge of the program politically. And I definitely blame the banks for keeping a lot more of the PPP money than they gave out.”

He said that wasn’t really a surprise.

“Of course, I knew you the minute the federal government put banks in charge of a PPP financial situation everybody that didn’t matter would get screwed and the banks would make out like bandits and I was right,” Stark said. “I cannot tell you how many people I’ve talked to that if they did receive any money from that program it was less than $1,000. Most did not receive any.”

While he waits for the money due him, Stark does his best to battle the fatigue and sense of hopelessness. It is a daily struggle, he admits.

“I literally don't have any next steps,” Stark said. “When I was denied all assistance all my steps went out the window. So far every dime of the $1,200 stimulus and first two unemployment checks have gone just to try and catch up on bills, which I have still not been able to do.

“Still no work coming in, in fact the only thing still coming in are the bills.”