Fresno County offering grants up $5,000 to small businesses amid coronavirus pandemic
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors directed about $5 million toward a loan program for businesses looking for help as they deal with the financial impacts of being closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The “Helping Underserved Businesses” grants could help as many as 1,000 businesses throughout the county, according to officials. Business can apply for grants of maximum $5,000.
The money is a piece of the county’s roughly $81.5 million of federal COVID-19 aid. Businesses unable to get other federal aid during the pandemic have been prioritized under this new grant, according to Jean Rousseau, the county’s chief administrative officer.
The businesses must have existed for at least two years and can’t be in debt to the county.
Supervisor Brian Pacheco said the idea is to target small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
“We’re providing a safety net for all those businesses who slipped through the cracks,” Pacheco said. “These are for the small businesses who didn’t have the expertise and the wherewithal to get the other (federal) money.”
Pacheco said he would have preferred a program that offered low interest or zero interest loans, but the federal dollars can’t be used that way.
Pacheco and Supervisor Steve Brandau sponsored the program.
The money will be distributed through Access Plus Capital, who will also determine which businesses meet the program’s requirements. If too many businesses apply for the money, the names will be drawn randomly, according to officials.
The relatively small grants could be helpful to businesses that have been dormant for close to two months, according to Lee Ann Eager, CEO of the Fresno County Economic Development Corp.
“One of the things that we kept hearing back was, ‘If I’m going to re-open in two weeks, I don’t have the money in order to buy products,’ “ she said. “When we said, ‘Would $5,000 do that for you?’ They all said ‘Absolutely.’ “
The Fresno EDC will be in charge of the outreach program to businesses, Eager said. A website to apply for the loans will be made available, according to officials.
A news conference on the grants is planned at 1 p.m. Tuesday, and is set to be streamed live on Facebook.
City of Fresno
A similar program offered in the city of Fresno called “Save our Small Business” handed out grants of $5,000 or $10,000 to more than 100 businesses.
The businesses include barbers and salons, coffee shops, restaurants, plumbers, food trucks, daycare centers and more.
