San Leandro Businesses Receive $5,000 CARES Grants

SAN LEANDRO, CA — As 2020 closed out with hundreds of Alameda County businesses temporarily shuttered because of stay-at-home health orders, more than 1,900 grants were offered to small, local, and emerging businesses under the Alameda County CARES grant program including businesses here in San Leandro.

The $5,000 grants were approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in November, applications for the grants were due Nov. 30, and the recipients were notified no later than Dec. 30.

In addition to the roughly $8 million in CARES Act money contributed to the program by the county, several cities approved matching grants totaling almost $2 million. The 10 cities are Alameda, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Pleasanton, and San Leandro.

The grant program is being administered by the East Bay Economic Development Alliance (East Bay EDA).

“Alameda County and our local city partners are pleased to be able to provide these grants to small businesses who have been disproportionately impacted by the effects of the pandemic,” said Keith Carson, Vice President of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Chair of the East Bay EDA. “Small and local businesses are part of the backbone of our communities and it is crucial that we do everything that we can to help them continue to operate while concurrently following public health guidance to keep people safe.”

Unfortunately, more than 7,700 businesses applied for the 1,900 grants, so the money had to be awarded by lottery.

Patch has requested a list of local businesses that received the grants. The list will be released at a later date.

The money may be used for the following purposes:

• Rent/lease/mortgage and utility payments for business facilities
• Payroll (may not be used to meet the same Payrolls an organization is paying for with funds received from the Paycheck Protection Program but may be used to meet Payrolls after the organization has depleted their Payroll Protection Program funds)
• Operating Expenses such as supplies, materials, insurance, etc.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), sanitation or health safety equipment
• Reimbursement for digital technology equipment required to transition existing programs online
• Business adaptations to comply with or relating to new COVID-19 requirements needed for business operations or re-opening, such as interior and exterior reconfigurations including curb-side or storefront pick-up and delivery, partitions, temporary signage, outdoor seating (to encourage social distancing), and other required adaptations