Florida Reemployment Assistance & Bridge Loan Update - March 26 - WINTER HAVEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Florida Reemployment Assistance & Bridge Loan Update - March 26

3/26/2020

This webinar, hosted by our partners at the Orlando Economic Partnership, featured guest speakers Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) Ken Lawson and Director of the Office of Small and Minority Business Capital for the Florida (DEO) Michael DiNapoli. Executive Director Lawson shared information about the DEO’s resources regarding COVID-19, including the Reemployment Assistance program, Emergency Bridge Loan and Business Damage Assessment Survey, and Director DiNapoli discussed Emergency Bridge Loans in more detail.

We encourage you to watch the video above for the full webinar and a walk-through of how to apply.

A few important takeaways from the call:

Reemployment assistance (formerly unemployment compensation) (Apply for Reemployment Assistance Here)
- can also be used if you have reduced hours, not just those that get fully furloughed or laid off.
- The Florida Reemployment Assistance office is averaging 30K requests a day. Please be patient and read through the website first to have many of your questions answered.
- Update from the DEO on questions they are getting regarding the application (March 27):
  - Normally there is a job search requirement in the application process and there is a box applicants must check off agreeing to the terms and conditions which include a job search requirement. GO ahead and check this box knowing the job search requirement as been waived
  - After submitting the application, you receive an email from Employ Florida that in otherwise normal circumstances you must register with Employ Florida in order to receive the benefits. Since the job search requirement has been waived you can ignore this email.
  - To receive benefits under normal circumstances you must certify weeks of unemployment. During this process they are asked job search requirement options. Again, here they are able to ignore these questions given the waiving of that requirement.

Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan (Apply for the loan here)
- These short-term, interest-free working capital loans are intended to “bridge the gap” between the time a major catastrophe hits and when a business has secured longer term recovery resources, such as sufficient profits from a revived business, receipt of payments on insurance claims or federal disaster assistance.
- The Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program is not designed to be the primary source of assistance to affected small businesses, which is why eligibility is linked pursuant to other financial sources.
- You must have been in business by March 9, 2020 (date of declaration)
- You have to apply by May 8
- Apply as soon as you can. There is a finite amount of money.
- The application process is currently only available from a desktop computer/laptop, not available to complete on a mobile device
- You must be a for profit business (the federal SBA program and legislation addresses 501(C)3 non-profits)
- You must have 2-100 employees. The owner counts as an employee. You can count 1099 employees
- Only 1 loan application per business, but if you have multiple businesses you can apply under each business.
- The applicant must own 51% of the business
- It is a personal loan requiring no collateral so personal credit will be pulled. If you have frozen your credit you must release the freeze.
- You can go back and reapply for more after approved, but with a finite amount of funding the do not recommend it. Apply for what you need, even if it is the max $50. But remember, it's a loan, it will have to be repaid.
- If you are applying for $25,000 and have a credit score of 680 or above you will likely be automatically approved when the loan gets processed as long as all information is submitted and you meet the qualifications. If you apply for $50,000 with a score of 680 then $25,000 will get approved and the other $25,000 goes to underwriting.
- Your loan application password sometimes hit your spam folder so check their first if you don't see it
- Normally the timeline of application to approval is 5-7 days, but with the overwhelming number of applications they are running about 2-3 weeks. Do not submit your application twice. That slows the process. Do not submit using more than one medium (paper versus online). That slows down the process.
- The loans are being processed through a loan review committee with the local SBDC Tampa regional office
- Once you submit your application you cannot change it. Please be sure to submit a complete application with all of the required documents
- You are encouraged to also apply for a longer term federal SBA Loan
- Most loan amounts will be up to $50,000 with some exceptions for up to $100,000
- Loans will be interest-free for the loan term (1 year). To remain interest free it must be repaid in that 365 days. The Interest rate will be 12% per annum on the unpaid balance thereafter, until the loan balance is repaid in full. Loan default is subject to a normal commercial collection process.
- There are currently no state aid programs to help sole proprietorship but the Department of Economic Opportunity is looking at various options and hopes to have announcements made in April

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Florida Reemployment Assistance & Bridge Loan Update - March 26

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