GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Nearly two months after applications opened up, there's still a little more than half of the Kent County small business relief fund up for grabs. The county along with the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce are encouraging small businesses to apply.
In June, the county established a $25 million fund for small business relief using federal CARES Act dollars. The grants are between $5,000 and $20,000.
The Grand Rapids Chamber, the organization administering the funds, says grants are based on things like the number of full time employees, other COVID-19 aid received and losses/expenses during the pandemic.
Over 700 businesses have received a combined $5.9M, with another nearly 600 businesses awaiting approval for another $4.4M.
Kent County Commission Board Chair Mandy Bolter said the county expected the money to go quickly, however, as businesses began opening back up less people applied.
"They were so focused on just getting back to work, that they did not want to take the time to fill this out," Bolter said during a virtual press conference Tuesday.
The Chamber, which received $800,000 to help administer the funds and provide technical support to participating businesses, says it has conducted outreach through door knocking, robocalls to every Kent County business and partnerships with dozens of community organizations.
While applicants who have received other COVID-19 relief funds can apply, the goal of the fund at the outset was to prioritize businesses who had not yet been able to access other aid.
Business leaders from groups including the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses previously called for the county to redistribute the small business relief funds to organizations who have long served Black and Latino owned businesses.
County Administrator Wayman Britt said in a previous statement that the decision to contract with the GR Chamber came out of the organizations "highly relevant experience, immediate capabilities and capacity." The county makes the final decisions on the grant recipients and distributes the funds.
So far, about 37% of recipients are white business owners, 21% are Black, 13% are Asian American, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 8% are multiracial, 1.4% are Middle Eastern and .2% are Native American. A little over 6% of recipients did not indicate their race or ethnicity.
Villarreal said that the chamber's outreach efforts have been intentional in targeting Black, Latino and Asian American communities.
"I don't think there's a stone left unturned, we've been very intentional in reaching to all of our underrepresented, minority businesses," Villarreal said.
The fund will remain open to applicants for as long as funds are available, which Villarreal estimates will be another month and a half. Applicants must be a for-profit business with 0-25 full time employees. The business must be registered in Kent County, directly impacted by the pandemic and have a business start date prior to Feb. 15, 2020.
Villarreal said roughly 100 applicants of the over 2,000 have been denied for not meeting the requirements. However, he said the chamber is reviewing all denied applications.
Click here to apply for a grant. Visit the Chamber's Facebook for updates.
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