COVID-19 Resource Center
Development finance has always been at the forefront of recovering from natural disasters and economic challenges. The CDFA COVID-19 Resource Center is a collection of financing programs and resources to address disaster relief and recovery.
As the situation surrounding COVID-19 evolves, small businesses and communities across the country will very quickly face liquidity challenges, job losses, and project stagnation. Credit will be tightening and small businesses will struggle to make payroll while communities will be forced to scale back or halt infrastructure development. Moreover, communities are facing difficulties financing critical infrastructure such as health facilities, broadband networks, and testing centers to address local COVID-19 demands.
Development finance agencies are uniquely positioned to solve these challenges through pragmatic solutions and adjustments to existing initiatives. CDFA developed this COVID-19 Resource Center to serve as a central hub of everything the development finance world is doing to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.
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COVID-19 Recovery & Relief Update newsletter for regular updates on relief and recovery financing initiatives.
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-CDFA's COVID-19 Comprehensive Recovery Strategy
Based on the input of our 500+ members, CDFA has developed a set of policy proposals that would allow state and local governments, through development finance agencies, to be immediate problem solvers that can help alleviate the extreme economic challenges facing small businesses and communities to put America securely on the path to recovery.
Read the Comprehensive Recovery Strategy
Unlock Capital for Small Business Immediately
To support small businesses, Congress and the Administration should:
- Reauthorize & Fund the State Small Business Credit Initiative
- Temporarily Remove Match Requirements from Certain Federal Programs
- Amend Existing Revolving Loan Funds
Pass Immediate Bond Financing Provisions
To support communities, Congress and the Administration should:
- Pass the Modernizing Agricultural and Manufacturing Bonds Act (MAMBA)
- Create a Permanent Category of Disaster Recovery Bonds
Allocate Federal Funding Accordingly
- CDFI Fund - $1 billion to address critical community lending needs
- EDA - $500 million to seed new, flexible revolving loan funds and to provide direct technical assistance to communities hit hard by the crisis
- HUD - $2 billion to address urban disaster recovery due to small business losses
- USDA - $2 billion to address rural development stagnation and the loss of small businesses
-Weekly Development Finance COVID-19 Briefings
CDFA hosted weekly briefings about development finance COVID-19 news and resources. These one-hour phone calls featured legislative updates, news from our members, state and local financing strategies, and lessons learned from previous development finance responses to disasters.
CDFA's Weekly Development Finance COVID-19 Briefings were held every Friday at 1:00 PM (Eastern) through May 15, 2020:
-State Response Map
Click a state to view COVID-19 financing programs and related headlines.
-COVID-19 Recovery & Relief Resources
-Federal Resources
-State and Local Resources
Summary of State and Local Funding Sources in the American Rescue Plan
This table includes all the federal-to-local funding streams in the American Rescue Plan that reach cities and their residents. It does not include appropriations to Tribal Governments or Agency appropriations focused on program operations at the federal level with no further sub-allocation. It is a dynamic summary to be paired with the Federal Investment Guide produced by Accelerator for America, Drexel University, and the US Conference of Mayors.
How Should Local Leaders Use Their American Rescue Plan Funding?
Included in the American Rescue Plan Act is $350 billion for "Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds." These funds will be deployed to state and local governments to mitigate the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many cities and counties, this represents the largest positive fiscal jolt to their budgets in decades. The decisions made in the coming weeks will determine whether cities merely enjoy a brief stimulus or seed a new trajectory of inclusive economic growth.
Everything Cities Need to Know About COVID Relief
President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law on March 11. With the stroke of a pen, the President and Congress delivered historic, unprecedented and meaningful aid to America's 19,000 cities, towns, and villages with $65.1 billion of direct aid. This analysis provides a closer look at the direct aid to cities, towns, and villages.
The Pandemic is Pushing Cities to Rethink How to Drive Capital to Small Business
An estimated 41 percent of Black-owned businesses closed over the same February to April of 2020. State and local governments are using an assortment of tools to push that money in the direction of the people and businesses hit hardest by the pandemic — which happen to be disproportionately Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.
How States Can Direct Economic Development to Places and People in NeedMembers only 
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To address local disparities and help struggling areas thrive, governments at all levels have spent billions of dollars on a range of geographically targeted, or "place-based," economic development programs — mostly in the form of financial incentives — designed to boost job creation and business investment, incentivize real estate development, or increase property values in specific places. The Pew Charitable Trusts performed a literature review of more than 100 studies to better understand the reasons for the lack of effectiveness of place-based programs.
State Tax and Economic Review, 2020 Quarter 2Members only Login
States saw steep declines in revenues in the second quarter of 2020, though some of this was caused by shifting revenues into the next quarter and next fiscal year. Consequently, most states ended the 2020 fiscal year uncertain about their fiscal bottom line. Many states cut spending, laid off or furloughed workers, or used federal aid or rainy-day funds, while they waited to see what their revenues would be after the July 15 income tax filing deadline.
State Tax Revenue During the COVID-19 PandemicMembers only Login
This dataset, compiled by the Urban Institute, examines the economic factors driving state tax collections during the COVID-19 pandemic based on data from US federal agencies like the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Local Data for Equitable Recovery
Local Data for Equitable Recovery is a resource hub curated by the Urban Institute and the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) that highlights how local communities can use data and information to respond equitably and effectively to long-standing disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 health crisis.
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-Additional Resources
-Headlines
-Upcoming Events
CDFA-Bricker PACE Webinar Series: PACE 2.0 - The Next 10 Years
Tuesday, November 20, 2021
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Eastern
It has been approximately 10 years since the first PACE programs began. During this workshop, our speakers will provide insights related to expanding PACE assessments to benefit buildings and properties for other non-energy related improvements such as indoor air quality, lead water pipe replacement, surface storm water mitigation, and sewer overflows.
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-Webcasts
One Year into the Pandemic: New Evidence on How Small Businesses are Faring
The Urban Institute hosted this discussion about how small businesses are faring one year after the start of widespread economic shutdowns due to the pandemic. The webinar explored the disconnect between the fall in business activity and revenues, and generally positive small business credit and debt patterns. It also discussed what roles governments and philanthropic entities should play, including what work is needed to ensure businesses historically excluded from access to capital can have a prosperous future.
National SSBCI 2.0 Call - March 26, 2021
SSBCI was signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. CDFA hosted this National SSBCI 2.0 Call serving as an interface between Treasury and stakeholders during the rulemaking process. On March 26, 2021, we discussed insights and recommendations to Treasury and our understanding of what resources need to be developed.
2021CDFARuralDevelopmentFinanceWebinarSeries:Financing DisasterResiliencyinRuralCommunities
During the first installment of the CDFA Rural Development Finance Webinar Series, hear about a new technical assistance program from CDFA designed to support rural communities that have recently experienced a natural disaster. Experts discussed the variety of financing tools available from federal, state, and local sources to encourage investment resilient infrastructure.
National SSBCI 2.0 Call - March 11, 2021
SSBCI was signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. CDFA hosted this National SSBCI 2.0 Call with interested stakeholders on March 11, 2021, to discuss SSBCI 2.0. We discussed key SSBCI 2.0 questions and timelines. We also discussed CDFA's plans for SSBCI education and future engagement. Several states spoke about their efforts to re-launch SSBCI programming.
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