City of O'Fallon
Small Business Resiliency & Retention Fund
The City of O’Fallon is now offering grants for small businesses located within the City limits that are adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds are available as part of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant portion of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act federal stimulus package. The funds are available to O’Fallon’s small businesses with seven (7) to fifty (50) employees.
The City’s Public Assistance Office will offer financial support in the form of a grant for qualified small businesses that are working to prepare for, prevent and/or respond to COVID-19. The program is intended as an infusion of funds to assist businesses in remaining in operation and retaining employees by providing funding for certain essential expenses.
“We know this year has presented our local businesses with unprecedented challenges, and our businesses have done an amazing job of continuing to make modifications and deal with the situation presented by COVID-19,” said Bill Hennessy, Mayor. “By offering this program, we hope that we can give our businesses a boost and help them continue to fight through these next few months and protect the jobs that keep our residents working.”
The program will offer up to $10,000 to a qualifying small business applicant to help cover such business expenses including, but not limited to, employee wages, inventory costs, vendor and utility bills, and rent/mortgage. The relief is targeted specifically to help small businesses with a physical commercial location within the City. Funds cannot be used if business interruption insurance or other federal COVID assistance programs have been accepted and/or used for the requested purpose.
Applications will be accepted until October 16, 2020, at which point, the City’s review process will begin. Applications will be scored based on a matrix, and funds will be awarded accordingly. If funds remain available after the initial round of funding, a second round of applications may be considered. To apply, business owners may visit
www.ofallon.mo.us/grants-assistance to download the application.
Eligibility Overview:
- $5,000 - $10,000 available to qualifying businesses, amount dependent upon Full Time Equivalency (FTE) retention, documented need and scoring matrix results (see Appendix B for further details).
- Business must be current on all city, state, and federal taxes.
- Business must have a current City of O’Fallon business license.
- Business must be physically located within the geographic boundaries of the City of O’Fallon.
- 51% of employees must be considered low-to-moderate incomed, based on CDBG income guidelines (payroll summary and outline of employee wages will be able to document this) and there must be sufficient information documenting that the jobs would have been lost without the CDBG assistance and that one or both of the following applies to at least 51percent of the jobs:
- The job is held by a low-to-moderate income (LMI) person; or
- The job can reasonably be expected to turn over within the following two years and steps will be taken to ensure that the job will be filled by, or made available to, an LMI person.
- Business must retain jobs during the 6-month grant agreement period.
- Employees furloughed at the time of application do not count towards job retention numbers.
- Business is considered sustainable.
- Business must have been in existence prior to September 2019.
- Business must be current on rent/utilities/mortgage as of the onset of COVID-19 (Business must not be in arrears at the onset of COVID-19/March 27th, date of the CARES Act.). Funds cannot be used to address unmet financial obligations prior to COVID-19 and are limited to assist only the six subsequent months prior to the date of the signed grant agreement.
- The business is not operating in violation of any local, state, or federal laws.
- Business has not used public assistance and/or proceeds from business interruption insurance to cover business expenses listed within the request for the City’s CDBG-CV/Small Business Grant funding.
