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.

Subscribe to CDFA's 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

On November 19, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced updated guidance for COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program applicants to better serve small business owners in need, while funding remains available.

The federal government's Paycheck Protection Program provided small-business owners with just under $800 billion in COVID-19 relief, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. The PPP concluded on May 31, but as businesses forge ahead in the recovery process, they may find a continued need for affordable financing. Here are some of the government funding options that are still available — and how to get them.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is announcing a higher loan limit will be available for borrowers seeking a guaranteed farm loan starting Oct. 1, 2021, from $1.776 million to $1.825 million. In addition, FSA will permit a second Disaster Set-Aside for COVID-19 and a second DSA for natural disasters for those who had an initial COVID-19 DSA. Requests for a COVID-19 DSA or a second DSA must be received no later than May 1, 2022.

As part of the Administration's efforts to address food systems challenges arising from the pandemic as well as those going back decades, USDA announced plans for another $100 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. The funding would leverage hundreds of millions more in lending through community and private sector lenders to expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure.

HUD has issued the HOME-ARP Implementing CPD Notice, Requirements for the Use of Funds in the HOME-American Rescue Plan Program. The new HOME-ARP notice is a critical step taken by HUD to expeditiously allow communities to begin accessing funds from the nearly $5 billion funds allocated from the American Rescue Plan.

Complaints about the SBA's COVID-19 disaster loan program have made their way up the ladder and led to major changes, including boosting how much money business owners can get. The agency announced significant updates to its Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which provides low-interest loans to businesses that were hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic. It's intended for companies with 500 or fewer employees.

USDA announced that $700 million in competitive grant funding will be available through the new Farm and Food Workers Relief grant program to help farmworkers and meatpacking workers with pandemic-related health and safety costs. Additionally, to recognize the essential role and costs borne by front-line grocery workers, $20 million of this amount has been set aside for at least one pilot program to support grocery workers and test options for reaching them in the future.

On August 31, 2021, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2021-39, which extends until March 31, 2022, the period during which issuers will be permitted to conduct telephonic public hearings for tax-exempt bonds.

States and territories, as well as cities and counties with populations of more than 250,000, will soon be delivering the first of seven annual Recovery Plan Performance Reports to the U.S. Treasury, and those reports are required to be posted on "publicly facing" websites. The reports are unlikely to reveal much about actual performance but will give an initial view of how states and localities are spending the $350 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act.

The U.S. SBA announced it will begin sending invitations for supplemental awards for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program. Per the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Non-profits and Venues Act, SVOG supplemental awards are to be provided to those who received an initial grant and have illustrated a 70% loss when comparing 2021's first-quarter revenues to the same in 2019.

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-State and Local Resources

Promoting Equity Investments for an Equitable Recovery Members only

The Urban Institute set out to study how innovative policies and programs from abroad could inform state and local efforts in the US to advance an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. They produced five briefs, each profiling an approach from abroad that addresses a different policy priority: child care, broadband access, local economic development, parks and public space, and housing stability and affordability.

A Better Way to Spend COVID Relief Funds

Cities are currently grappling with how they should prioritize competing programs, initiatives, and ideas. SLFR funds are a once-in-a-generation opportunity and cities have to contend with balancing relief and recovery. While we can't observe the processes in every city, we pull out four emblematic examples that are at the forefront of emerging models of local recovery.

Disaster Resiliency and Recovery Resources: A Guide for Rural Communities Members only

USDA Rural Development (RD) developed this guide as a resource for rural communities seeking disaster resiliency and recovery assistance. The recent National Climate Assessment (NCA) identifies that more frequent and extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.

The American Rescue Plan Can Be a Lifeline for Business Districts

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses in rural downtowns to urban commercial corridors already faced serious challenges, including decades of disinvestment, limited access to capital and broadband, brain drain, and competition from big-box and online retail. The American Rescue Plan Act —and particularly, its $350 billion in state and local funding—offers a lifeline for these struggling Main Streets.

COVID-19 Complicates Housing Affordability Members only

Bond Finance | Disaster Recovery & Relief | Economic Development | Housing Finance | Social Finance

This research from Fitch Ratings examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has complicated housing affordability. Issues that led to the persistent housing unaffordability preceded COVID-19. The pandemic caused an economic contraction felt among millions of Americans of many economic strata, and housing insecurity has only worsened for the most vulnerable.

Using State and Local American Rescue Plan Resources to Address Violent Crime Members only

Community Development | Disaster Recovery & Relief | Social Finance | U.S. Dept. of Treasury

This guidance from the Treasury Department examines how states and localities can use the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds included in the American Rescue Plan Act to reduce and respond to violent crime – particularly gun violence – by investing in community policing, community violence interruption, and other programs that are proven to reduce crime.

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: Five Things Governments Need to Know

Disaster Recovery & Relief | Economic Development | Member News | COVID-19

The U.S. Department of the Treasury published its interim final rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Recovery Fund. The American Rescue Plan Act created the $350 billion recovery funds. To support governments in using money distributed from the recovery funds, the interim rule provides critical guidance regarding eligible uses of funds.

How Cities, States, and Tribes Can Boost Entrepreneurship via the American Rescue Plan

The COVID-19 crisis has put thousands of small businesses, from high-growth startups to Main Street employers, out of business. Importantly, the economic impacts of COVID-19 have not been equal. Minority-owned businesses and very small businesses are disproportionately concentrated in the industries most heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis such as restaurants, retail stores, and personal services.

American Rescue Plan Act - Local Relief Frequently Asked Questions Members only

After the American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021, it guaranteed direct relief to all 19,000 cities, towns, and villages in the United States. NLC has identified frequently asked questions about the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund grants, and has provided answers based on available information to help cities prepare while Treasury develops official guidance.

American Rescue Plan Tax Credits Available to Small Employers to Provide Paid Leave to Employees Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) allows small and midsize employers, and certain governmental employers, to claim refundable tax credits that reimburse them for the cost of providing paid sick and family leave to their employees due to COVID-19, including leave taken by employees to receive or recover from COVID-19 vaccinations.

View More Disaster Recovery & Relief Resources

-Additional Resources

-Headlines

COVID Prompts Calls to Build Out Broadband
The Bond Buyer | Dec. 23 | Disaster Recovery & Relief | Infrastructure Finance | COVID-19

View more Headlines

-Upcoming Events

SSBCI Coalition Meeting - February 18 (Virtual)
February 18, 2022
1:00 PM Easter

SSBCI Coalition meetings will be held once a month to provide an interactive forum for CDFA members during the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) application period. CDFA will facilitate discussions that allow for networking, peer knowledge sharing, and problem solving.

SSBCI Coalition Meeting - March 18 (Virtual)
March 18, 2022
1:00 PM Eastern

SSBCI Coalition Meeting - April 22 (Virtual)
April 22, 2022
1:00 PM Eastern

SSBCI Coalition Meeting - May 20 (Virtual)
May 20, 2022
1:00 PM Eastern

SSBCI Coalition Meeting - June 24 (Virtual)
June 24, 2022
1:00 PM Eastern

View more Upcoming Events

-Webcasts

One Year into the Pandemic: New Evidence on How Small Businesses are Faring

Access to Capital | Disaster Recovery & Relief | Webcasts

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.

CDFA Rural Development Finance Webinar Series: Financing Disaster Resiliency in Rural Communities

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.

CDFA - Ice Miller Broadband Financing Series: Financing Tools for Broadband Projects

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for broadband and the gaps in broadband access. As part of our collaboration with Ice Miller, this video is designed to provide a review of the various approaches to expanding broadband access and how to assess which approach best accommodates community needs and capabilities.

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