At the Chamber’s urging, The Alhambra City Council has directed staff to create a local business grant program that would help local small businesses adversely affected by the pandemic. 

During its February 28 meeting, the Council advanced the project, authorizing staff to reprogram $150,000 of unused funds from its Emergency Housing Assistance Program to fund the grant project. City staff has indicated that the Emergency Housing Assistance Program has become obsolete since the State and County have created other assistance programs that are more valuable to applicants. Residents can only apply to the City program if they have not received assistance from other agencies. 

The $150,000 surplus from the Housing Assistance will be repurposed to help businesses with less than 25 employees, and have not received COVID financial assistance from other Federal sources, including PPP or SBA funds. Franchises, landlords, investment firms, hotels, and auto sales businesses will not be eligible. The maximum award for each applicant is currently targeted to be $5000.

The Chamber has been and will continue to work with City staff and the council to help roll out this important program after the final council hearing on March 14, 2022.