When the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was enacted as part
of the CARES Act in March 2020 there was considerable uncertainty
as to whether residential cooperatives were eligible to
participate. Eventually, the Small Business Administration
advised lenders that neither cooperatives nor condominiums were
eligible.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, signed into law on
December 27, 2020, appropriated additional funding for the PPP and
specifically added "housing cooperatives" to eligible
participants. . (Condominiums are not mentioned.) The most
attractive feature of the PPP is that borrowers are eligible under
certain conditions to apply for loan forgiveness.
Cooperatives may therefore want to consider an application
provided that they can, in good faith, make all of the
certifications required by the government as part of the
application process, including a certification
that "[C]urrent economic uncertainty
makes this loan request necessary to
