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State sets aside millions of dollars to small businesses rebounding from COVID-19 closures

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Pennsylvania will provide grants to small businesses that are rebounding from mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Tom Wolf said Monday that a $225 million pool of money will be available, possibly by the end of the week, to nonessential businesses, including those in Southwestern Pennsylvania that were allowed to reopen Friday.

“We want to emerge from this pandemic with a viable path forward,” Wolf said during a news conference in Harrisburg.

“The light is finally at the end of the tunnel,” Wolf said.

The grants were announced on the same day that 10 new COVID-19 deaths were recorded in Pennsylvania, the lowest the daily death count has been since late March. The virus has killed 5,953 people statewide. Seventy-one percent of the 75,943 COVID-19 patients in the state have recovered, state Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Monday.

Levine issued an order Monday requiring all long-term-care facilities to test all residents and staff for the virus by July 24.

She also announced that the department’s website has been updated to provide more and transparent data about the virus, and a new contract with the Public Health Management Corp. in Philadelphia to prepare for a potential COVID-19 resurgence in the fall.

The new grant program resulted from a bipartisan agreement in the Legislature to help preserve Main Streets and businesses that are in disadvantaged neighborhoods, Wolf said.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development will distribute the funds to the Community Development Financial Institutions, which will then administer the funding in the form of grants.

Eligible businesses will be able to use the money to cover operating expenses during the shutdown and transition to reopening, and for technical assistance, including training and guidance for business owners as they stabilize and relaunch their businesses.

The grants will be available through three programs:

  • $100 million for the Main Street Business Revitalization Program for small businesses that experienced loss as a result of the governor’s March 19, 2020 order relating to the closure of all non-life-sustaining businesses and have or will incur costs to adapt to new business operations related to COVID-19
  • $100 million for the Historically Disadvantaged Business Revitalization Program for small businesses that experienced loss as a result of the business closure order, have or will incur costs to adapt to new business operations related to COVID-19, and in which socially and economically disadvantaged individuals own at least a 51 percent interest and also control management and daily business operations.
  • $25 million for the Loan Payment Deferment and Loss Reserve Program, which will allow the CDFIs the opportunity to offer forbearance and payment relief for existing portfolio businesses that are struggling due to the impact of COVID, as well as shore up the financial position of the CDFIs that are experiencing significant increased defaults in their existing loan portfolios.

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