The Town of Babylon, as part of its Babylon is Back COVID-19 recovery initiative, has made $2.5million in loans available to small business owners within the Town. A coalition consisting of the Town, the Babylon Industrial Development Agency, local villages and the Town’s Local Development Corporation (LDC) have coordinated with New York State and the National Development Council to make the funding available through the New York Forward loan program.
“We are proud to make a contribution to the loan program which, in turn, will unlock more than $2.5million for our local businesses to access as they navigate through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Town of Babylon Supervisor Rich Schaffer. “While the actions taken to stop the spread of the virus were the right ones, our small business owners suffered the unfair consequences of the shutdown. This funding will help provide some much needed relief as they take the appropriate steps to reopen.”
New York State has set aside a pool of funding amounting to nearly $100 million,which has been distributed to five Community Development Funding Institutions(CDFI) to loan up to $100,000 to businesses with 20 employee sor less who could not take advantage of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). In order for the CDFI to access the state’s funding stream, five percent of the loan amount must be provided. The Town’s coalition is providing the initial $125,000 (five percent) that will enable small businesses to tap into the $5 million available through the New York Forward loan program.
“Now that additional funding has been secured, we must do everything in our power to make sure the small businesses within the Town know it is available and are poised to submit an application,” said Babylon IDA CEO Tom Dolan. “We have canvassers that are reaching out directly to business owners to make them aware of these funding resources as well as the other guidelines and assistance programs at their disposal. The quicker and more coordinated our recovery efforts are, the faster we can restore the livelihoods of our small business owners.”
Small business owners looking to take advantage of the available funding are encourage to access the state’s loan portal to submit an application. When applying, all small business owners should choose the National Development Council (NDC) as their CDFI. For additional questions about the loan and process for submitting an application, please visit nyloanfund.com.