The Jamestown Municipal Building. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The city of Jamestown, through the Department of Development, has provided $469,812 of COVID-19 recovery grants to local businesses and for tenant assistance.

The funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the allocation of a federal Community Development Block Grant.

Rental assistance grants of $52,512 have been provided to local tenants while small business grants of $417,300 have been awarded to eighteen local businesses. Businesses and tenants are required to provide proof of economic impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“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 Crystal Surdyk, city Department of Development director.

“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,” she added.

The city of Jamestown received a total allocation of $704,881 through the HUD program which was authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), for the two relief programs.

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.

“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.

For more information, call the Department of Development at 483-7659 or visit jamestownny.gov/restart to view the applications for both programs.