Small business grant relief program launches in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: The city of Jacksonville experienced technical issues with the website to apply for grants Monday morning. The program launched at 9 a.m. but several business owners reached out to Action News Jax saying they were having issues. The city said there was a server issue with so many people trying to apply at once. The issue was resolved around 10:30 a.m.

Original story below:

Monday, the City of Jacksonville says they’ll launch the Small Business Relief Program at 9 a.m. The city says the program is designed to provide financial assistance for businesses that lost revenue due to the pandemic and to help them keep their employees. They say businesses that qualify will receive a one-time payment of up to $2,000 and they will be making the payments to 4,500 businesses.

The grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis and the whole process is virtual.

The qualifications include:

• Owning a business in Duval County.
• Operation for at least a year prior to February 29th, 2020.
• No more than 100 employees on February 29th, 2020, there is no minimum number of employees to qualify.
• You must certify that your business has experienced at least a 25% loss in revenue since February 29th due to coronavirus.

Action News Jax’s news partner WOKV checked in with the city to learn if there was any documentation you needed to provide before applying and they tell us there is no documentation needed, but you’ll have to attest to the fact that you lost at least 25% revenue due to the pandemic.

The city says businesses listed in the Adult Entertainment Industry are not eligible for the program.

If you’d like to apply for the program, then you’ll need to create a MyJax business account before applying. You can do that at myjax.custhelp.com. The city says the same account and website will be used during the application process.

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