Relief portal to reopen for some businesses

Orange County government will give away $3 million in “micro-grants” beginning Monday to qualifying small businesses.

The application portal at ocfl.net/orange cares opens at 8 a.m. for home-based businesses with three or fewer employees.

Owners of those shops “felt like they were left out and not able to qualify for anything,” said the county’s Economic Development Administrator Eric Ushkowitz, who has supervised efforts to distribute more than $65 million in coronavirus relief.

“I think we’ll get a large volume of [applications],” he said.

The micro-grants pay up to $3,000 based on an applicant’s 2019 revenue.

Many home-based businesses were shut out of a county relief program which handed out one-time $10,000 grants.

None of the grants have to be repaid.

About 4,000 businesses have been approved so far to receive small business grants of $10,000.

The money is part of the $243 million package Orange County received from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, a $2.2-trillion economic stimulus bill passed by Congress and signed into law in March.

Eligibility guidelines for the $10,000 grants required homebased businesses to have three or more employees who lived in the home, a narrow niche because zoning regulations in every Orange County municipality but Orlando require employees to reside in the home.

Some home-based businesses applied for financial help but were denied aid. The micro-grants were created to help them.

Eligibility rules were tweaked because seven of every 10 applications were denied when the program first launched.

For instance, small businesses which received federal Paycheck Protection Program loans originally were deemed ineligible for county aid but they now can get a $10,000 county grant or a micro-grant if they received $75,000 or less in PPP assistance.

The program also was restricted at first to companies with fewer than 25 employees. Now they can employ up to 100.

The tweaks have dropped the denial rate from 70% to 51%.

Ushkowitz said the county has tried to help businesses turned down because their applications were incomplete.

“It’s taken longer than we anticipated. Gathering paperwork is a challenge for some small businesses,” he said.

Ushkowitz said the microgrant program will help selfemployed consultants and landscapers who work from home.

To pre-register to apply and to study eligibility requirements, visit the county’s online site at ocfl.net/orangecares.