County debuts new grants for businesses
Harris County businesses with fewer than 30 employees are eligible for grants up to $25,000, County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Monday.
The $30 million program, which Commissioners Court approved unanimously June 30, aims to assist the smallest county businesses harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The idea is to give an injection into our economy, to strengthen it — to help them keep their doors open, to keep their employees on the payroll,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said. “As much as we want to flatten the pandemic curve, we want to flatten the unemployment curve.”
Grants from the Small Business Relief Fund can be used to cover payroll, rent, supplies and other operating expenses.
To be eligible, firms must conduct business in Harris County, employ fewer than 30 people, have been in businesses for all of 2019, owe no outstanding local, state or federal taxes, and be able to verify a negative impact caused by the pandemic. Businesses inside the city of Houston are ineligible, unless they are located in Precinct 1.
The application period opened Monday at 8 a.m. and expires July 24. Business owners can apply online at www.harriscounty-sbrfund.org.
The grants will be awarded on a random basis to qualified applicants. Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said the county wants to ensure each businesses has a fair chance at receiving aid. He said a first-come, first-served approach to distributing the county’s original $10 million small business aid program left some of the most vulnerable
businesses without help.
“Many of our smaller businesses were still at the back of the bus,” Ellis said. “Sometimes, the better prepared (rather) than the most unfortunate are the ones sitting by the computer waiting to go online and grab the money.”
The pandemic and government restrictions on movement and commerce caused more than 500,000 job losses in the Houston area by June. Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to reopen the economy May 1 unraveled last month as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have increased steadily since Memorial Day. In the first weeks of July, deaths began to increase as well.
Hidalgo said the economy will not recover if Texas fails to get the virus under control, and again called on Abbott to allow her to again issue an enforceable stay-at-home order, as she had in March.
“We know some businesses are open seemingly enough to spread the virus but not enough to sustain them,” Hidalgo said. “As long as we continue thinking we can reopen the economy safely, while being at surge hospital capacity, while having an enormous pool of places that will spread the virus, we are simply trying to make policy based on wishful thinking.”