Oregon Governors Office - Regional Solutions Exchange attached for reference and notable updates, employment and economic headlines
Please find this week’s Regional Solutions Exchange from the website Oregon.Gov for reference and notable updates, employment and economic headlines included below.
Grants for Businesses Behind on Rent – Business Oregon’s commercial rent relief program offers grants for small businesses and landlords dealing with past due rent because of the pandemic. Both landlord and business tenant need to participate in the application process. The business tenant must have fewer than 100 employees. Grants go up to $100,000 per business tenant, based on the amount of rent past due because of the pandemic. This is NOT a first-come first served program, a lottery system will be used if needed to meet the funding we have available, which is $42+ million. Full criteria and the application link http://www.oregon4biz.com/Coronavirus-Information
Landlord Compensation Fund: Round Two Open Now – Are you a landlord with past due rental payments? The Landlord Compensation Fund can help! The program covers 80% of past due rent (April 2020 – now) for tenants with a signed declaration of financial hardship if a landlord agrees to forgive the other 20%. The first round will cover rental debt for approximately 12,000 tenants and helped more than 1,900 landlords. Round two is now open. Please note this program is not first-come, first serve, and applications will be open until May 17th. If you are interested in applying in the second round. Visit https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/housing-assistance/Pages/landlord-compensati... for more information.
SBA's Restaurant Revitalization Fund (Coming Soon) – The Small Business Administration (SBA) created its next tool to help businesses impacted by the pandemic, the $28 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF). Authorized in the federal American Rescue Plan, this program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as funds are used for eligible uses. Eligible businesses include restaurants, food carts/trucks, caterers, bars, bakeries, brewpubs, breweries, wineries, and some other food and drink providers. The SBA announced on April 27th that the program will begin registrations for the application system Friday, April 30th at 9AM EDT, and open for applications on Monday May 3, at noon EDT. The first 21 days the program is open applications are restricted to businesses owned by veterans, minorities, and women. After that, the fund will open to all other restaurant owners. Full details, eligibility, and tips for gathering needed documentation https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/resta.... The Portland SBA office is putting on webinars to help interested business owners walk through the process and prepare to apply.
Grants for Shuttered Venues – The SBA’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program includes over $16 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance. Live venue operators and promoters, theatrical producers, museums, movie theaters, and more are the target for the program. This program is now open for applications. Eligible applicants may qualify for grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. $2 billion is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees. The SBA has a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the SVOG program that helps defines terms and provides additional guidance. Full program information and a link to the application is available on https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/shutt....