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December 29, 2020

Small businesses notified this week about state pandemic cash; federal funding on tap  

Photo | HBJ Gwendolyn Thames, deputy DECD commissioner, speaks at the governor's briefing on Dec. 28, 2020.
By Liese Klein

Check your email, spam and snail-mailbox this week if you have a struggling small business in Connecticut ‒ you may have money waiting. 

The state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) sent out email notices this week to applicants for several pandemic aid programs for small businesses and a quick response is needed to get the funds. 

“We’ve really tried to prioritize that access to capital for businesses so they can sustain their operations,” Gwendolyn Thames, deputy DECD commissioner, said Monday at the governor’s  COVID-19 briefing.

Applicants for the $50 million state Connecticut Cares program were notified last week if they were approved for $5,000 grants. About 18,000 applications were received for the program, with 6,000 notified in this first round that they were approved. 

More applications are pending with the eventual goal of giving out 10,000 grants, Thames said. Electronic signatures on the grants are required by Dec. 30 with the state’s technology partner, SoFi, so businesses should check their email inboxes to make sure that they respond by the deadline.

A second, federally-funded grant program will distribute $35 million to businesses in hard-hit sectors by the first week of January, Thames said. 

Those grants will average $15,000 each and are slated for about 2,000 businesses in retail, hospitality and recreation. The grants will come in the form of a physical check to the business’s listed address, so Thames urged owners to check their mailboxes. 
 
Thames said that much more help is needed for Connecticut’s struggling businesses and she urged owners to apply for the second round of  Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds now available in the new stimulus package. 
 
Business owners should contact their banks about applying for forgivable PPP loans even if they missed out on the first round or already received PPP funds, Thames said.

The Small Business Administration website posts a list of lenders participating in the program and organizations like the Connecticut Small Business Development Center, the Connecticut Women’s Business Development Center and the Black Business Alliance can help with applications, she added. 
 
Connecticut can expect about $9 billion overall from the new stimulus, Lamont said, $4 billion of in the form of direct relief.
 

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2 Comments

Anonymous
January 22, 2021

My small business was denied saying all funds were allocated to areas more depressed than mine or something to that effect. The Hartford Stage gets half a MILLION and Museums get THOUSANDS and the Mom and Pops on Main Street use up their retirement savings to pay their rents. My shop has been closed since last MARCH! Thanks for NOTHING Ned.

Anonymous
January 13, 2021

This program from the DECD is totally messed up! Got the email to sign the doc - with scary language about missing deadlines and losing the $5k. Signed immediately, only to get more emails stating they have NO record of us having signed with a link to sign - But clicking on that link shows it IS signed.
Very frustrating and NO ONE to talk to.

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