City of Jamestown Provides Nearly Half-A-Million In Assistance To Local Businesses

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JAMESTOWN – The City of Jamestown has given out nearly a half-million dollars in economic assistance to local businesses and renters in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Jamestown Director of Development announced the news Thursday.

“Our community has faced unprecedented economic hardship with the pandemic and these monies give businesses help to retool their business model to try to remain open now or gives them a better chance to reopen when the economic climate changes,” said Development Director Crystal Surdyk. “Landlords and tenants have both benefited from the tenant relief funding by giving tenants housing security because they’re able to remain more current on rent while landlords receive financial stability during a time period where New York State has an eviction moratorium.”

They say in total $469,812 of COVID-19 Recovery Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant have been allocated.

The money was provided to local tenants while small business grants were awarded to eighteen local shops. Businesses and tenants were required to provide proof of economic impact due to the pandemic.

“I encourage any tenant or business owner who could benefit from this assistance to contact our office or visit the city website. We have limited funds remaining and want to help as many people as possible,” said Surdyk.

Businesses have been able to apply for grants of up to $20,000 for the purposes of reopening and recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rental Assistance Program provides up to $1,500 to assist tenants whose employment has been negatively impacted by the state’s response to COVID-19 and are not receiving rental assistance through other agencies.

Business recipients of the first round of the Small Business Relief Grant include: