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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic there have been various forms of support for significantly impacted businesses, most notably the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). By design, PPP was to be implemented by banks and prioritized towards payroll (with the rest going towards rent, mortgage and other expenses). Multiple studies have shown that micro-enterprises, black-, women- and other minority-owned businesses were disproportionately underserved by this relief effort.
More than a year later, the economy is showing signs of improvement, but many impacted small businesses continue to have a hard time meeting their largest operating expense – rent. Throughout the pandemic, rent concessions were negotiated between tenants and landlords to get through the crisis. In most cases, landlords are prohibited from making additional concessions to tenants by their lenders and these rent arrears will eventually come due. Concerns are surfacing that improvements to the economy may be overshadowed by delinquencies, closures and widespread bankruptcies.
To bring greater equity to the business assistance programs, ICSC is launching the Small Business Comeback Initiative to call on policymakers at federal, state and local levels to create programs to provide rental assistance, allowing deferred rental payments to be structured and paid for in a way that doesn’t bankrupt small businesses. Although certain industries are slated to receive targeted support, such as independent entertainment venues and restaurants, there are countless community businesses, like dry cleaners, childcare providers and hair/nail salons that do not have national organizations advocating specifically on their behalf.
The Small Business Comeback Initiative asks for a grant program for deferred rent and fixed commercial lease expenses necessary to prevent eviction, such as utilities, insurance and taxes. Similar to the residential rent assistance program, a COVID-impaired small business tenant would apply and the funds would be distributed to the owner/operator and credited to the applicable tenant. ICSC believes that the program should be aimed at microbusinesses that did not have significant payroll to leverage as part of other assistance programs and minority-and women-owned businesses.
For more information about this policy proposal please contact Jennifer Platt at jplatt@icsc.com.