SBA 7(a) Behavioral Health Feasibility Study in Michigan

Michigan behavioral health: small loans, a late surge

Michigan's behavioral health and addiction providers borrow modestly under 7(a): a $150,000 median is just 0.60x the nationwide one, and a typical loan lands from $70,500 to $320,625. The record holds 34 approvals and $8.9 million. Franchising is 0.00%. Counting loans puts Michigan at 9 among states, and the class takes slot 22 of 39 in Michigan's own list. No ratio is an outlier, so scale is the main message, along with an unusual calendar.

One bank and a metro core

The Huntington National Bank holds 11 loans and $2.6 million, the only lender in the table, in SBA's current-holder file. Oakland County has 10 loans, Kent and Van Buren 5 each, Missaukee 3, with Bay, Hillsdale, Ingham and Wayne at 2 each. The calendar shows 12 loans and $4.0 million in FY2025, far above any other year, against 7 loans and $2.2 million in FY2021, a year with no approvals in FY2018, and 2 loans and $165,000 in FY2026.

SBA's data offers no usable cancellation or charge-off rate for the cell, as the loans behind them number too few. We give no number, and blank does not mean none.

The coding limit and the study

Mental health care and addiction treatment cannot be separated in SBA's codes, so these figures blend them, and a study must say which service the borrower provides. Michigan's licensing regime for treatment programs, and its approval of outpatient and residential settings, should be mapped, with the time each approval takes built into the cash flow. Demand is best gauged by local need and by referral ties with courts, hospitals and primary care. Reimbursement is mostly from insurers and public programs, so the study should test collections under conservative assumptions and stress them for slow payment. Staffing is the heavy cost, and clinician retention is a risk to name. At a median of $150,000, expect equipment, leasehold work or an acquisition to be common uses, but if the loan buys a building, the appraisal will price it for licensed use. Coverage should be shown at a slow census.

Since 12 loans were approved in FY2025 against 1 in FY2024, a Michigan reader should not extrapolate from a single recent year. The study should rely on local referral evidence and on the borrower's own licensing timetable, and treat the recent surge as context rather than proof of demand.