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A statewide coalition of community development corporations, lenders and community groups is calling on state leaders to create a rescue package for small businesses left out of the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Seventy-four organizations sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Robert DeLeo earlier this week. Prominent coalition members include the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, the Conservation Law Foundation, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, and chambers of commerce from many Gateway Cities.

“We are heartbroken watching hard working men and women fight to save their business and their families from economic ruin – a situation that has nothing to do with their skills as business owners, but is entirely due to COVID-19, and the public health necessity to close their businesses. They are suffering immense economic harm to help keep all of us safe, so we believe all of us have a shared responsibility through our state government to help keep them in business,” the letter states.

For a variety of reasons – being underbanked, relying on alternative lenders for financing instead of banks or credit unions, suspicion of PPP loan forgiveness guarantees and limited back-office support – many minority-owned businesses and businesses in the state’s Gateway Cities have struggled to access federal small business rescue dollars. In a survey of nearly 500 small and micro businesses released by the groups with the letter, 58 percent of respondents said they did not think the federal CARES Act would meet their needs over the next three months.  Forty-two percent said they were surviving on personal savings, which the coalition called an “unsustainable strategy.”

The coalition wants the state to develop a strategy “to better access federal dollars and to strategically use state resources to plug gaps in the federal response.”

“If Washington can’t get it right, our leadership needs to,” Segun Idowu, Executive Director of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

The coalition offers the following recommendations for programs and policies that should be part of the state’s Small Business Relief and Recovery Program:

• $10 million in funding to support community-based organizations that deliver culturally competent and multilingual technical assistance and coaching to small businesses;
• $30 million in emergency relief grants to help businesses cover rent, mortgages and other fixed costs;
• $35 million to community development financial institutions, community development corporations, and other community-based lending programs to help them offer grants, zero/low interest loans, loan deferments and other assistance to small businesses;
• $75 million to the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp. for a revolving loan fund to help businesses unable to access SBA financing, with a focus on communities of color, immigrant communities, rural towns, and Gateway Cities;
• A statewide small business assistance task force charged with ensuring the effective and equitable delivery of support to small businesses during the economic shutdown and through the recovery.