Somerville Awards $1M To 123 Local Businesses

SOMERVILLE, MA — The city will award $1 million in Small Business COVID-19 Relief Funds to 123 small businesses in Somerville, Mayor Joseph Curtatone announced Friday. Funded by federal Community Development Block Grant money, the city will issue forgivable loans to businesses that collectively employ about 600 people.

Announced in April, a total of 331 businesses applied for up to $10,000 in loans. The typical loan amount issued is $7,500, which allowed funding to be spread among more businesses. Businesses owned by people of color make up 46 percent of awardees, and 56 percent of awardees are women-owned businesses. A full list of recipients will be posted to the city website at www.somervillema.gov/bizrelief.

Businesses that did not receive funding have been put on a waitlist that will be activated if more funding, which is being sought, is secured.

"This fund will not be enough to address the extraordinary need right now, but our hope is that it will help our small businesses facing the greatest cash flow challenges carry forward as we work toward recovery, especially typically underserved businesses left out of other relief efforts," Curtatone said in a statement.

Funds were allocated through a review process focused on delivering the greatest impact for owners, workers and the community, officials said. The money is intended to help local businesses remain viable and retain or create jobs despite coronavirus-related disruptions.

Applications and program guidelines were made available online and in multiple languages on April 24th and applications were accepted until May 11th. Multilingual outreach took place and included coordination with the SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs (SOIA) and the Communications Team, outreach through the Economic Development e-newsletter, networking through our economic development partners, systematic direct, one-to-one outreach using business license contact info, and targeted outreach to our small businesses utilizing other business assistance programs.

Assistance in filing applications was also provided to business-owners with technology or language needs by bilingual SOIA and Office of Economic Development staff.

The eight-person Review Committee included Ward 2 City Councilor J.T. Scott and four community representatives appointed by Somerville business and nonprofit organizations: East Somerville Main Streets, Union Square Main Streets, Somerville Chamber of Commerce, and The Welcome Project, as well as three staff members from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development.

"We know our businesses are working as hard and as creatively as they can to survive during this crisis. With this fund, our goal was to inject some needed financial support into the reopening and recovery of the small businesses that form the backbone of our local economy," Economic Development Director Tom Galligani said.

In addition to the new fund, the Economic Development team has been working to offer intensive, multilingual support to local businesses. Services include multiple virtual town halls and topic-specific webinars, support to help local businesses access federal crisis funding, one-on-one business coaching, setting up www.somervilledelivers.com to promote restaurants that offered pickup and delivery during the shut-down and working with the Job Creation and Retention Trust to establish the COVID-19 Assistance Fund to help nonprofits serve residents facing financial impacts from COVID-19.

For more information or assistance for overall business needs during the pandemic, please visit www.somervillema.gov/CovidBizHelp or call 311. The funding source for the Somerville Small Business COVID-19 Relief Fund is from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant program.