New Funding for Small Businesses Available

An allotment of $483 billion, which was signed into law Monday as part of the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, will provide new funding for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) COVID-19 relief programs.

Of the funds included in the measure, $383 billion will be used to help the nation’s small businesses retain their employees in an attempt to bridge the worst of the crisis.

The heart of this measure is the effort to provide an additional $310 billion for SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program. It includes a $60 billion set aside for smaller credit unions, banks and community development financial institutions that tend to serve the communities that have not accessed PPP sufficiently. Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said this should help make sure more funds get to the state’s smaller businesses.

The funding is expected to become available to financial institutions early next week. If you’re a small business owner and would like to apply to SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program but have not yet filed an application, you should complete your application with an SBA lender as soon as possible. A list of SBA lenders in Hawai’i can be found on the SBA’s website.

Find the application form and loan checklists here.