She was underemployed at the time as a consequence of the recession. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/commercial-multifamily-market-trigger-recession/

During a recession, DFW still grows at near 100,000 people a year, and in a good economy, it grows at 150,000 plus.

Hot markets with  high rents / taxes are the first ones to get in hit  when a recession strikes  .

Several months ago I posted about Austrian Economics & hard assets & preparing your real estate business for recessions big & small.

Big banks managed to exclude themselves from this new regulation following the recession, however, so anyone at B of A or Wells can help you.Makes no logical sense, but there it is.Fun fact:One of my lender buddies used to be at Wells before she was licensed (at the big banks, you need only be "registered," not "licensed"), and at the time they had better rates for CA branches than most of the midwest because of our larger loan amounts here.

My question is, how did people and investors do it when there were 80/20 loans just before the recession?

Using only data from the last recession is a flawed approach.

Second, we have been in a recession since 2007.

Seeing senior living fund seems to be recession proof, are your SLF investments affected by the pandemic at all?