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Newark Announces Recipients of Grants from Round Three Emergency Fund for Small Businesses

Newark

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced today the recipients of Round Three grants from his emergency initiative to stabilize Newark’s small businesses that have suffered a direct loss of income due to COVID-19. 

The Small Business Grant Fund was created in March 2020 to support impacted Newark small businesses and help them to survive the current crisis, retain as many employees as possible, and adapt and recover.

Awards under this round were up to $25,000 to Newark businesses with from one to 25 employees including home-based businesses. 

Applications were scored to prioritize personal services (barber shops, hair salons, nail salons), businesses that employ Newark residents, MWBE businesses, and those that did not receive funding in the earlier round of City grants. 

The program was available city-wide with a major share of the funds reserved for the hardest hit Zip Codes (07104, 07105 and 07107). Only businesses that complied with the 10-day shutdown from November 25 to December 4, 2020, were eligible.

“With limited funds, we are working to help Newark businesses, tenants, artists and others facing financial ruin from COVID-19 to survive and recover,” Mayor Baraka said. “The Small Business Emergency Fund is one of the many ways that we are pulling together as a community to fight the virus and restore our economy. In collaboration with President Biden, our federal, state and city legislators and our philanthropic community, we are working to expand the help that we can provide to Newark’s small businesses.”

Allison Ladd, Deputy Mayor and Director of Economic and Housing Development said that 110 businesses received grants. 

62 percent of them went to businesses in the hardest-hit zip codes. 31 percent of the awards went to food/beverage businesses, 25 percent to salon/barber/personal services businesses, 14 percent to retail businesses, and the remainder to a variety of other categories.

Grant awards cover accounts payable, payroll, inventory, licensing and license renewal, utilities, accounting and auditing services, rent, insurance, COVID-related equipment and supplies for adaptation and recovery.

The program is administered by the City’s Department of Economic and Housing Development and funded by local trust funds and US Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant (CARES CDBG) funds. This round was developed with support from Bloomberg Associates.

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