More than 1,300 local businesses have been selected to receive forgivable loans from the City of Sacramento’s Small Business Recovery program.
The program is designed to immediately support local businesses that have been impacted economically by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is a huge relief that we have been able to deploy our CARES Act money to help small businesses and non-profits through this unprecedented time,” said Councilmember Steve Hansen who championed this program. “We are providing critical support to families through the daycare assistance and assisting our most vulnerable entrepreneurs and sole proprietors because of the leadership of Congressmembers Matsui and Bera who fought for Sacramento to get this federal aid.”
“Workers and local business are the lifeblood of Sacramento, whom we were able to provide much needed aid,” said Councilmember Eric Guerra. “The forgivable loan program will help our local businesses weather through this pandemic so that we can help our economy and keep Sacramentans working.”
The Small Business Recovery forgivable loan program will award approximately $9.5 million in forgivable loans, which will be funded from the $89 million the City received from the federal stimulus bill, known as the CARES Act.
The City received 1,878 completed applications, 1,347 of which were located in the city and will receive funding once all supporting documentation is submitted for review. These loans are in addition to the 101 businesses that were selected for the City’s $1 million loan program launched in March right after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The forgivable loan program was vital to support our local businesses and non-profit organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and to aid with the retention of employees,” said Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso. “I am proud to report that we were able to fund all qualified businesses that applied.”
For businesses with six to 25 employees, the loan amount was determined by the number of full-time equivalent employees with a maximum loan amount of $25,000. Home-based businesses with 1-2 employees received a flat rate of $2,500 and micro businesses with five or fewer employees received $5,000. The funds may be used to cover the day-to-day operating expenses of the business such as payroll.
Businesses were notified by the City this week and will now work with Five Star Bank to finalize loan agreements. Monies are expected to start being dispersed starting as early as August 28.
Eligibility requirements for businesses can be found here.