The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has agreed to launch a new small business financial support program to help L.A.’s most vulnerable businesses survive the COVID-19 crisis. 

The fund will include “bridge funding for small businesses likely to receive federal disaster assistance,” according to the text of the initiative, which was crafted by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. In addition, it will bring “low-cost working capital loans to maintain small businesses who may not qualify for federal disaster assistance,” as well as “working capital loans to nonprofit organizations and small businesses who are providing essential services, or transitioning from an existing model to provide essential services, that directly address the health or economic impacts of COVID-19.” 

Further, the effort would bring “cash grants to microentrepreneurs and other highly vulnerable populations who will not qualify for federal disaster relief. The programmatic model should incorporate community development financial institutions as intermediaries and other nonprofit partners to market available relief,” the order states. 

Urbanize.la reports that the fund is current made up of a combination of private and public funding and includes “$12 million from Los Angeles County, $15 million from Goldman Sachs Group, $1 million from Wells Fargo Foundation, $100,000 from Citi Community Development, and $25,000 from Union Bank Foundation.”

News of the fund comes as funding for federal disaster business relief initiatives, including the Small Business Administration-backed Paycheck Protection Program, begins to run dry. 

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