Mayor's Message to the Business Community
To Our HB Business Community,
The past few months have certainly presented once in a lifetime challenges for our businesses. But I want to assure you that helping our business community to recover and succeed going forward continues to be one of the City’s highest priorities.
We’ve been hard at work to ease your transition towards reopening, as Governor Newsom begins to lift a majority of his Stay At Home restrictions. One notable step forward has been the launch of our COVID-19 Small Business Relief Program, which will provide a limited number of grants between $5,000 to $10,000 to Huntington Beach small businesses with 30 or fewer employees. Applicants must also meet other eligibility requirements that are available on our new website, www.HBready.com/biz-grants.
The City began accepting grant applications this week (June 22 to June 26) to provide immediate financial relief to local businesses that have experienced hardship due to COVID-19. Applications are available on www.HBready.com/biz-grants, and businesses must apply by June 26 at 5:00PM. We anticipate awarding a limited number of grants by early July. Once received, these one-time grant funds may be used to pay for rent, lease or mortgage payments, payroll, utilities, accounts payable, PPE, and other similar expenses.
The City and its partner, the Orange County Small Business Development Center (OC SBDC), are currently accepting applications which can be found on www.HBready.com/biz-grants. Should the request for grant funds exceed the amount of funding available, the OC SBDC will conduct a lottery to randomly select qualified small businesses to receive grants.
We look forward to providing this vital lifeline to our small businesses, who have been hurting during this challenging pandemic. Our small businesses deserve all the support that we can offer. As a result, the City developed www.HBready.com/reopen to provide businesses with clear and definitive guidance on when and how they can reopen safely to the community. We encourage small businesses to check back frequently to see if their industry is permitted to reopen now.
The City Council and I are truly amazed by the resilience and resourcefulness that our business community has displayed during the Stay At Home Order. We take pride in working with you and look forward to partnering with you in this new economy.
Sincerely,
Lyn Semeta Mayor of Huntington Beach