Five Communities Join Together to Provide Forgivable Loans for Small Businesses that will help support micro-businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acton Town Manager John Mangiaratti, Boxborough Town Administrator Ryan Ferarra, Littleton Town Administrator Anthony Ansaldi, Maynard Town Administrator Gregory Johnson and Westford Town Manager Jodi Ross are pleased to announce a new partnership between the five communities and TRI, The Resource, Inc. that will help support micro-businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Town of Action was awarded $1.6 million in Community Development Block Grant - Coronavirus Funding for a Micro-enterprise Forgivable Loan Program. This program will provide eligible businesses a one-time grant of up to $10,000 to help cover costs such as rent, staffing and utilities. This grant will be for small businesses with five or fewer employees (including any owners), whose owner or owners meet low to moderate household income qualification as designated by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in all five towns.
“We are grateful to be able to use this $1.6M in CARES CDBG-CV funding to help micro-businesses in our five communities that have been impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic along with two other programs targeting social service providers, which will be announced in early February," Acton Town Manager Mangiaratti said. "These businesses have been significantly impacted by the pandemic over the last year, and this funding, which can be used for expenses not covered by other funding programs, will hopefully go a long way in helping our local businesses through this challenging time."
The funding, which was provided to the state from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, was made available for communities to apply for to help start up these programs at the local level. The Town of Acton will serve as the lead for the program.
For more information and to see if your business qualifies, visit www.trimicroeloans.org and choose the Acton Boxborough tab for the easy step by step pre-application questionnaire. Once submitted you will receive an email with further instructions. Pre-applications are reviewed on a first come, first served basis.
Those with question may contact TRI at trimicroloans@gmail.com for more information.