PPP aid saved nearly 20K jobs
Local businesses have received millions in Paycheck Protection Program funding, but some worry it won’t be enough to weather the entire duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 1,658 local businesses and nonprofits in Humboldt County received somewhere between $135 million and $195.5 million in PPP funding, allowing 19,220 workers to remain employed, according to data released by the Department of the Treasury on Monday. Of that, about 1,419 businesses received less than $150,000, totaling about $54 million, while 240 businesses received over $150,000, totaling somewhere between $81.3 million and $195.5 million.
The larger loans helped retain 11,116 jobs while the loans of less than $150,000 helped retain 8,104 jobs, according to the data.
When the shelter-in-place order first went into effect around midMarch, businesses said they had to lay off a substantial portion of their workforce. The PPP funding was intended to allow business owners to get forgivable loans to keep paying their employees’ salaries during the shutdown.
Marissa Elias, Eel River Brew
ing Company’s sales manager, said her company was able to hire back about 50 members of the staff it had to lay off when the shelterin-place order began thanks to the funding.
“We were able to take advantage of having access to that,” Elias said. “We’re happy to be able to retain and bring back most of our staff.”
Astra Burke, owner of Many Hands Gallery, said even though she received the funding, members of her staff didn’t want to return to work because either they were receiving unemployment or they had health issues that made them wary of working with the public.
“Which is something I’m hearing is common for other employers as well,” Burke said.
The funding went further for some businesses and organizations than others because of how the program was rolled out.
Initially businesses and organizations had eight weeks to use up the funding, but once that eight weeks was over, the length of time they had to use the money up got extended to 24 weeks.
Andy Titus, Humboldt County Fair Board president, said the fairground’s former general manager Richard Conway “did what anyone would have done and spent all of it within the first six weeks.”
“By the time it got extended, all the money that needed to go toward employees was gone,” Titus said.
That led to the fair board having to make hard decisions in order to be solvent until 2021, including laying off the general manager, Titus said.
“We got the PPP money, but we added on a ton of staff in a short period thinking we needed to use it in that window,” he said. “Then when the window got extended, there was no more money coming.”
Businesses said with case counts increasing, they were afraid of what another shutdown would mean for the bottom line. Even without a shutdown, customer volumes are at about half of what they normally are during this time of year for her business, Burke said.
Several businesses in Old Town Eureka said out-ofstate tourists were a large proportion of their customers in recent weeks, and some from high-risk areas like Georgia and Texas.
“I think we’re going to be in a really interesting roller coaster ride here,” Burke said, “and it’s going to come to a head really soon.”