Los Angeles County officials announced Friday that the application deadline for a grant program assisting small businesses affected by the Lineage Fire and East Los Angeles Oil Spill has been extended by one week, to Oct. 9.
The Small Business Recovery Grant provides up to $3,000 to eligible brick-and-mortar businesses and up to $1,000 to eligible home-based businesses with a customer presence, sidewalk vendors and mobile businesses in county-designated impact areas.
The program is intended to assist businesses that suffered economic losses or interruptions connected to the June 17 Lineage Fire in Boyle Heights or the May 22 oil spill near East Cesar E. Chavez and North Eastern avenues, according to the county Department of Economic Opportunity.
The application deadline had been Friday.
“Small businesses in East Los Angeles affected by the Lineage fire and oil spill have been dealing with disruptions that are outside their control,” county Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis said in a statement. “These businesses should not have to face those challenges alone. We need to make sure they have access to the support available to them and the time they need to recover. Extending the deadline gives more owners an opportunity to apply, and I encourage every eligible small business to apply before the new deadline.”
The grant program was established with First District funds under Solis’ leadership, according to the county.
To qualify, businesses must be within a county-designated geographic impact area associated with either incident and must have operated at an eligible location for at least 30 days before the applicable incident.
Businesses must also have 100 or fewer employees, annual gross receipts of no more than $6 million and demonstrate or attest to a qualifying business disruption or economic impact connected to the fire or oil spill. Businesses outside the designated impact areas are not eligible.
The Department of Economic Opportunity will offer in-person application assistance from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the East Los Angeles Entrepreneurship Center at El Centro de Maravilla, 4716 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave. Assistance will be available in English and Spanish.
Eligibility requirements, impact-area maps and applications are available at opportunity.lacounty.gov/sbrgeastla.
Businesses seeking additional application assistance can contact the county Office of Small Business at 844-432-4900 or osb@opportunity.lacounty.gov.