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BOSTON - Tuesday,
August 31, 2021 - Today, Mayor Kim Janey announced that the City of Boston
will launch two relief funds for small businesses in the City of Boston to
aid business owners in their reopening and recovery from COVID-19. The
Restaurant Revitalization Fund and the Small Business Relief Fund 2.0
represent a joint $9.4 million investment into local businesses and workers
in neighborhoods across the City from new FY22 operating investments and
the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The online applications will be
available starting Wednesday, September 8, 2021 on
boston.gov/small-business in English, Spanish, and nine additional
languages.
“The success of
small businesses is crucial to helping working families and to maintaining
the unique character of Boston’s different neighborhoods,” said Mayor
Janey. “This program aims to help Boston’s economy recover by incentivizing
our workers and ensuring that our business owners have all of the resources
necessary for a successful reopening.”
There are
approximately 40,000 small businesses in the City of Boston, which have
faced unprecedented financial hardship during the pandemic and now are struggling
to attract and retain workers. Led by Mayor Janey, the Office of Economic
Development (OED) conducted a roundtable discussion in June 2021 with
business owners to solicit ideas on how the City can better support
restaurants during the reopening and recovery of our economy. In response
to that feedback, as well as ongoing surveys with small business owners of
all sectors, the City of Boston is responding directly to those needs to
build back stronger and more equitably.
“By leveraging
federal funding and new city operating investments, the City of Boston is
ready to support our local businesses as well as workers to ensure an
equitable recovery,” said Midori Morikawa, Interim Chief of Economic
Development. “Working in partnership with the Office of Workforce
Development, this critical support will benefit workers through fair wages,
retention bonus incentives, and continuing education opportunities as well
as businesses owners’ needs, from relief to growth plans.”
Restaurant
Revitalization Fund
The new Restaurant
Revitalization Fund (RRF), a three-month pilot program in partnership with
the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD), will provide a much needed lifeline to
restaurants as they recover from COVID-19. The three key components of the
RRF are:
·
Grants: restaurant business owners may be eligible
for both of these grant funds:
·
All
Restaurants: a $5,000 grant for
business expenses including rent, payroll, or inventory;
·
Restaurants
with Tipped Employees:
a $15,000 grant to increase payroll for tipped employees to $12.75 per hour
as a part of the One Fair Wage initiative;
·
Employee
Incentives: a $900 retention
bonus to attract and retain restaurant workers for new and existing
employees that continue employment at the small business for the continuous
pilot 3-month period; tuition assistance for college or training programs
to those retained workers for two years while working at a restaurant; and
100 B-Local Points per employee for each month of continuous employment
during the pilot program.
·
Marketing
Campaign: a public awareness
campaign featuring RRF restaurants as “champion” employers offering good
wages and benefits. The campaign aims to attract workers across the
restaurant industry in Boston. A public Request for Proposals (RFP) from
qualified marketing consultants will be released by the Office of Economic
Development in September 2021. The RFP will be available on the City of
Boston Supplier Portal.
Applications will be
available at boston.gov/restaurant-relief.
Small Business
Relief Fund 2.0
The Small Business
Relief Fund 2.0 (SBRF 2.0) will reopen the Small Business Relief Fund initially launched in April 2020. The SBRF 2.0 will issue grants up to
$20,000 to small businesses. These grants would be designed to help
businesses in the hardest hit industries cover all business expenses to
help their recovery and growth. To date, the Small Business Fund has issued
$6.7 million in grants to more than 1,850 businesses. Applicants will be
invited to apply in one consolidated application for two different funding
options:
1.
Relief
Grant: up to $10,000 in
grant funding to support outstanding debts for rent/mortgage, inventory,
payroll, or fixed expenses; and/or
2.
Growth
Grant: up to $10,000 in
grant funding to support business growth through tools, technology,
materials, personnel, or other costs associated with investing in the
growth of the business.
Applications will be
available at boston.gov/business-relief.
How to apply:
Small businesses
located in the City of Boston with 25 employees or fewer may be eligible
for one or both of these funding opportunities. Business owners can visit boston.gov/small-business for more information and eligibility
criteria. The online applications will be available starting Wednesday,
September 8, 2021 on boston.gov/small-business in English, Spanish, and
nine additional languages.
To learn more about
these opportunities, the City of Boston will be offering virtual
information sessions on Thursday, September 2 at 8:00 a.m and Wednesday,
September 8 at 5:30 p.m. and streamed live on Facebook or via Zoom on bit.ly/SBRFinfo. Interested applicants can also join the
weekly Small Business Office Hours on Friday, September 3 from 9:00 - 11:00
a.m. or 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. at bit.ly/smallbizofficehours.
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