 You have the CDBG funded emergency tenant assistance program, as well as the small business relief program and how to apply for these programs if you're joining by zoom again right now. Please type any questions into our chat, the q amp a box, or if you're on Facebook, we are running live as I mentioned so please type your question the comments of the live video. The town has been responding to local issues related to the pandemic, and we're continuing to respond, while also moving forward towards a recovery. Arlington receives an annual allocation of community development block grant funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, notice HUD. This year in response to the pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act. And as part of that act CDBG entitlement communities like Arlington were awarded an additional allocation of funding, which is called CDBG CV Arlington was actually awarded in addition to our regular million dollar grant, an additional $659,000, which is being used in response to the coronavirus pandemic. And those funds, as I mentioned, Aaron is going to talk about how they're going to be used. So with that, what I would like to do is turn it over to Aaron, who is going to be speaking about these two funds she's also going to be sharing a screen and running through a presentation. After Aaron speaks Colleen will be talking about the COVID-19 relief fund, and then I'm going to moderate a quick dialogue with the two of them, and open it up for questions. So, if you're not speaking we're going to turn off our video and listen to Aaron. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Like Jenny had mentioned, I'm Aaron Zwerko. I'm the interim community development program manager. And today I'm going to talk about two funds that are two programs that we have created through our additional allocation of CDBG CV grant funds through the federal management via the CARES Act. The two programs are the emergency tenant assistance program, which is geared to renters in Arlington that are having difficulty paying their rent due to COVID-19. The second program is a small business relief program, which is designed to support businesses with five or fewer employees, sustain operations through the pandemic. So again here's the two CDBG funded programs. So the emergency tenant assistance program is designed to provide rental assistance of up to $2,000 a month for three months. Three months is the maximum that we are allowed to provide assistance for due based on federal requirements. The program is open to any income eligible renter in Arlington that has been impacted by COVID-19. And to be further eligible, you have to show a documented gap in your income due to COVID-19. I'll also note that the payment goes directly to the landlord as required by the federal government. And the next slide I'm going to put up is a graph that shows the income eligibility. Oops, not quite. So to be eligible, you have to be an Arlington resident who rents your home. Your household must make a low income, which is 50% of the area needing income. And again, you must be unable to pay your rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis. So here's the rental, the income eligibility for a household of one person, that's $41,500. And the screen shows for a household of two, three, four and five. If your household is greater than the numbers here, you can find that information on the COVID-19 assistance website, which I believe is on the lower third of the screen. So again, to be eligible for this program, based on your household size, you cannot make more than the income limits that are shown in this graph. For the small business relief side, this program is open to brick and mortar businesses that meet the HUD eligibility guidelines. And we will be providing grants of up to $10,000 tied to your COVID-19 losses. There's a number of eligibility requirements for this program. You have to be in operation for more than one year. You do have to have a physical brick and mortar location in Arlington, as well as a presence in Arlington. Five or fewer full-time employees is the requirement and that includes the owner. It can be a mix of part-time employees to equal five full-time equivalents. The owner must be a low to moderate income earner. There must be documented loss of business income caused by COVID-19 since March 1st. Your business cannot have any tax liens, unpaid town fines, or unresolved issues with the town. And you will not have received SBA, which is the Small Business Administration, but assistance since March 1st as well. So the income eligibility for this program, again, this is only for the owner of the small business, is a little bit higher. It's at 80% of the area-mediated income. So again, in this chart, you can see that for a single-person household, the income limit is $62,450, and that goes all the way up to a five-person household of $96,350. And if your household is larger than five people, you can find those income eligibility requirements on the town's assistance website. So this slide shows the application process and the timeline. The two programs that I've spoken about, the Arlington Emergency Penance Assistance Program and the Small Business Relief Program, are following generally the same timeline. So applications, the pre-applications opened on Monday, June 15th. Those applications are accessible through the town's website, and that website is again on the lower half of the screen. It's ArlingtonMA.gov backslash COVID-19 Assistance. Today we're hosting the virtual town hall on the COVID-19 Assistance. On Monday, June 29th, at 11.59pm, that is the deadline to submit your pre-application. For both programs, to establish the order in which we will fund applicants, we will be holding a lottery. So once you submit your application, town staff will pre-screen your application and assign you a number. We will then host a lottery on July 6th for the Emergency Tenant Program and on July 7th for the Small Business Assistance Program. That lottery will be held live through Zoom, as has been the town's practice, so you can watch the results in real time. Following the lotteries, we will be in touch with each applicant to let them know where they fall in the lottery. For the Emergency Tenant Assistance Program, following the lottery, you will work with our housing provider, which is MCO Housing Services, to submit the required documentation and backup to prove your income eligibility and other eligibility requirements. For the Small Business Assistance Program, you will work with the town staff, primarily myself and Allie Carter, the Economic Development Coordinator, to submit documentation and backup to prove your eligibility. Once you have been approved for funding, either on the Tenant Assistance side or on the Small Business Relief side, over the summer, the town will distribute the funds. Again, for the Emergency Tenant Assistance Program, that funding goes directly to your landlord. For the Small Business Assistance Program, it is a reimbursable grant, so you will need to incur the expenses first, and we will reimburse you for those, up to $10,000. And that is the overview of these two programs. You can see the website on the screen. And I will note that we have translated information available in Spanish, French, Japanese, and Chinese, as well as on-call services for translation and other languages that are not provided in writing. And we will be making reasonable accommodations for those that need further assistance. So I'm going to stop sharing my screen and turn it over to Colleen. I see I was muted. Thank you, Erin. My name is Colleen Leger, and I'm the Director of the Arlington Youth Counseling Center. And I've been working with the Arlington Health and Human Services Charitable Corporation and working in partnership with the town to establish the Arlington COVID-19 Relief Fund. This fund has received donations from local businesses and community members of Arlington and has raised roughly $115,000 to provide financial assistance to those who have experienced economic hardship as a result of the pandemic. For those who are eligible, it is not restricted to households that earn a low income. However, priority will be given to those who have been most economically vulnerable to the COVID-19 crisis. So the fund will provide assistance by paying bills directly for residents and workers in the town of Arlington or workers for businesses in Arlington. And some of the expenses that it will cover would include rent and mortgage payments, condo fees, taxes, health care costs that have been incurred during the pandemic, child care costs that have been incurred during the pandemic, utilities for families with school-aged children it will cover internet connectivity, as well as medication costs and other necessities. And again, we will pay those bills directly. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and while we may not be able to honor the full amount of all requests, we're hoping that we'll be able to cover some for all eligible applicants. And again, until that fund is depleted. I think I think that's it. And if I've missed anything important, I believe Jenny will be moderating a question and answer session. So I'll be happy to answer questions at that point. I'll turn it over to Jenny. Thank you. Yes, great. Thank you, Colleen. Stay on and Aaron, why don't you the two of you come on back and Ali. I have a few questions actually just to follow up. Thank you so much for both of your presentations. Very helpful to get a sense of just sort of the scope of what you're looking for. And I know that there's already a question about an application, which we'll get to in a moment. I am curious, though, if you can just speak to a little bit about the turnaround that you're anticipating for approving applications. Both, you know, Aaron talking about that I know that there's the two different programs then of course Colleen. So maybe Aaron go first, please. Of course. So, as I had mentioned in my presentation for the emergency tenant assistance program. Following the lottery, you will be contacted by our housing provider, which is MCO housing services to submit the required additional documentation to improve your eligibility. At that point, once MCO housing services approves your application and refers it back to the town, we will cut a check for the payment to your landlord. We anticipate being able to turn this around within 30 days. And if there are difficulties or your landlord needs assurances, we can execute a promissory note so that can be assured that he or she will receive the rent payment within a reasonable amount of time. As part of the submittal required documents, we will need your landlord's W9 to be able to process the payment. For the Small Business Assistance Program, as I had mentioned, it is a reimbursable grant program. It does not require repayment, but you do need to incur the expenses first. And once you do, you can submit the documentation to the town for repayment. So that is as quick as you can be to incur those expenses and get them over to us for approval. So I think that answers the question, Jenny. Thanks, Aaron. Colleen. Sure. Well, as I mentioned, for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and anticipate with the grant review committee meeting a couple times a month to be able to respond to applicants and just regarding whether the amount that they've been awarded within 10 business days and then working with them and the town to process payment as quickly as possible. And I would imagine within about 30 days. Okay, excellent. And do you see possibilities for overlap in terms of if people are in a real crisis, a real emergency and can't wait? One way to go versus the other in terms of access to funding that you can provide some guidance on? I'll step in for a moment. We are encouraging residents who are applying for rental assistance who are eligible through the Tenant Assistance Program to first apply for the lottery. And then if they are approved for funding through the Tenant Assistance Program, we'd have them go in that direction. If they are not eligible, then we would welcome them to apply to COVID-19 Relief Fund or if they are not selected through the lottery then to come to the COVID-19 Relief Fund. And would that be similar for the business community or is there a different process? Yes, and for it would be for business owners because also we're offering it to workers of local businesses. But for business owners, we would encourage that they first go to your program. Okay, excellent. And just one other question that I had is this is really a public health crisis, of course. And as a pandemic, we're seeing a lot of things unfolding. They continue to unfold in the community. Can you discuss really just how this money is really helpful at this time? What kinds of things are you hearing or seeing that speak to why this is so necessary? And of course, why the Relief Fund will continue to need additional support? Sure. I think what we're seeing is that the impact, both the health implications as well as the economic implications is really having a disproportionate impact on low income communities. So for those who may have been struggling to meet their basic needs initially, it has been exacerbated by this pandemic. So we are seeing increased need for those who may have lost their jobs or been unable to work because they have small children or who have lost income or who have accrued expenses during this time that they are unable to cover. We are seeing that need. We have had people reaching for assistance and asking when these funds would be made available. So certainly we're seeing it now and the immediate sort of need is right now. And we anticipate that it will probably be ongoing, that there will sort of be longer term. And we're hoping that we'll be able to fundraise for the COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide some ongoing relief to those community members. Great. Erin, do you want to? I'll also note that in my position in the Department of Planning and Community Development, I have heard a lot of the same things that Colleen has just mentioned. And I know Allie has as well from the business side as our Economic Development Coordinator. I will note that while it's not the focus of this presentation, we are also making funding available to public service agencies that are working with all of the Arlington community and beyond to address the needs of residents in this pandemic, whether it's for transportation, senior support, technology support, food security, any of those and more. We are looking to also fund public service agencies and give them a small grant. Again, it doesn't require repayment to help them operationally continue their services above and beyond what they normally do for our community as they respond to the pandemic. Great. And I'll just see if Allie, you want to add anything, what you're seeing? Sure. Over the course of the last several months, we've done consumer surveys, we've done two surveys for business owners. Our Arlington Economic Development Recovery Task Force has convened several times and we've also had focus groups with six of the largest industries in town. And what we're hearing from the employers when they're talking about themselves, their own businesses and on behalf of their employees is that they're all kind of working twice as hard to make half as much. And I think that might resonate with a lot of folks who are listening in today. And also, just the uncertainty of this is so difficult for people to cope with in terms of how much it costs to run their business and what customers' expectations are and they want to do the best they can to meet those needs. So yeah, the uncertainty of everything is really difficult and I think these funds can help business owners rise to the occasion and meet the needs of their staff, their own families and their businesses and the people that they serve. I know you all have put a lot of work into the programs and the program development and, you know, putting together the forms and the paperwork and updating websites, trying to make it as accessible as possible for everybody who's looking for help right now. There is, I hope, you know, a link on the screen that people can go to to learn more about these funds. We do have one question about from somebody who's participating, who's asking, and I believe that this is really for both Aaron and Colleen. For income eligibility, what kinds of documents do you need to provide? Aaron, could you speak to that a little bit, please? So I'll start by saying that the pre-application form, which is linked through the town's website for both the tenant assistance program and the small business assistance program is very simple and does not require backup documentation to be submitted at this time. However, it is a good idea to gather up the information that we will need. So to document your income, the best course of action is to provide us with your tax return from 2019. That is going to show us what your annual income is. Due to the fact that so many of our community members may have been impacted in their jobs due to the pandemic. And your income might be fluctuating right now. It would be important to also provide pay stubs from the last couple of pay periods that you have been employed. Additionally, if you are receiving unemployment assistance at this time, documentation of that assistance should also be provided. On the small business side, because we are only looking for the income of the business owner and that person's household, you do not need to collect all this information for your employees, just for yourself as a business owner. And again, this documentation isn't needed at this very moment because I know it can take a lot to gather up this information. So following the lottery, depending on the order in which we will fund applicants, you will be contacted by our housing provider or from staff in the Department of Planning and Community Development and ask to submit this information. So we hope that that streamlines the need to upload information into the SurveyMonkey link that is our pre-application forms. And similar to Erin, the documentation is pretty much what we would request as well. What we're asking is for residents or workers to demonstrate a change of income or an increase in expenses. So that change of income could include last year's tax returns and current pay stubs. And then increase in expenses would be just the receipts or invoices or statements that they're requesting payment on. And I had another thought and I lost it. Oh, in terms of needing those documents, again, we encourage residents and workers to apply and if they need time to gather that information or if they need assistance in gathering that information. We do have social workers that are available. We have a case manager who is available to work with community members through the application and beyond if they need case management supports beyond this financial assistance that's provided through COVID-19 Relief Fund. They are available to offer support. Thank you both. And so that's helpful, Colleen, to know who to call and what to do if you need help. And Erin, you want to, and or Allie, speak to just providing any extra guidance in relationship to filling out forms or applications? Sure. If if you're having difficulty filling out the pre application form, you can get in touch with me. My email address and phone number are available on the town's website. You can also call the department directly, which is 7813163090 to be to be put in touch with me. And I can assist you in filling out either the tenant assistance application or the small business assistance application. I will note that the application form is mobile and tablet friendly. So even if you do not have a computer, you should be able to easily fill out the application. If you do need a printed application, we can coordinate that as well. And I just ask that you get in touch with me as soon as possible so that we receive it back as soon as possible. Great. The next question is, I think also for your Erin, which is, if the business has three partners, if two of three partners are qualified as or income eligible for low or moderate income and one is not. Would this mean that they're disqualified for the assistance or would it still be potentially eligible? I think it potentially could be eligible. I think we would need to review this case individually if you apply and are selected in the lottery. There could be a way that we are able to fund this application, but it might require providing a bit more documentation about the partnership structure. And I would say that, you know, similar to the last piece that we were just talking about, if you have direct questions or you have a concern or you're not sure about something contacting Erin directly or the main number for the planning and community development office and Colleen, all of this is available through the Arlington MA.gov slash COVID-19 assistance site. So you can find answers directly there or type in the email address that's at the bottom of that screen and ask your question. I don't have any other questions coming up now. Is there anything else that the three of you would like to make sure that we communicate to the public about these programs and the opportunities that are coming up? I will note that it is through a grant from the Community Preservation Act committee. We, through the Department of Planning and Community Development, will be able to fund a second round of tenant assistance with the same eligibility requirements. So once that money, that funding becomes available, we will be releasing a second round, most likely in mid-July. So if you're not selected in this round, there's another opportunity. And secondly, I'll also note that the Housing Corporation of Arlington's Homelessness Prevention Program is another resource for people to look to that can help provide assistance for rent, but also many other household expenses that my Arlington Emergency Tent and Assistance Program cannot support due to the federal requirements. Allie? I just wanted to make a note, and I'm afraid Erin's going to have to answer this because she knows it much better than I do, but these documents are available in a number of different languages, correct, Erin? That's correct. Yeah, we made our guide and frequently asked questions as well as the pre-application form available in Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese. While you will have to fill in the pre-application form on an English-facing page, you can follow along using the translated documents. If you would feel more comfortable receiving help through an interpretation in a language that we did not provide a written translation in, I can secure those services. So please let me know again as soon as possible so that I can facilitate that with you. We have access to interpreters in the region that can provide us with assistance at this crucial point in time. Great. Two more questions. As for loss of business income, what types of documents would we specifically be looking at? For example, documents for revenues or net income after expenses, profit and loss. Can you describe what types of documents might be necessary? And are those documents noted also on the COVID-19 assistance page? Yes, so they are. And they also in the frequently asked questions for the Small Business Assistance Program, I provide a calculation on how to document your loss of income before March 1, 2020 and after March 1, 2020. So at this point, because so many different businesses keep track of their profits and losses and expenses in a variety of different ways, we will work with the individual business owner to provide the best information that gives us the best picture for the loss of income. But essentially your general ledger is going to be the best resource for us at this time. Great. Is there anything, Colleen, you wanted to add to that? I'm just going to say similarly, although we don't have that information on our site and we can add that to our site, we will add that information. That would be excellent. If you apply for either the PPP or EIDL program, which are loans through the and programs through the Small Business Administration as a small business, does this disqualify you from applying to this particular or either one of these programs? I'll mention that because the Small Business Assistance Program is federal funding, we are unable to duplicate the benefits. So as part of the application for the Small Business Assistance Program, you will have to certify that you are not seeking assistance for the same thing that federal funding has already paid for. Because that is a duplication of benefits and is ineligible for CDBG funding, which is the funding source. So that is something that is important for you to track and provide us with the accurate information at the time that we work with you to fund your application. I just want to add a point of clarification because the PPP program is still accepting applications for a small period of time. So it's okay to apply for PPP or an SBA funded program. But if you receive that funding simply by applying, that doesn't disqualify you. That's correct, Ali. Yeah, simply applying for any of the programs that are out there right now to support small businesses does not disqualify you from the Small Business Assistance Program. We just need to be aware if you do receive funding in the future to ensure that we're not duplicating the benefits. And that's the payroll protection program and the Economic Impact Disaster Loan Program. Okay. Yeah. In case people are wondering what those two things were, they are, those are programs that were offered or are still being offered through the SBA, the Small Business Administration. And I believe a number of local banks are at local lending institutions serve as places where you can apply if you are currently banking with that institution, correct? Yes. Okay. Actually, many of them are allowing even not current clients to apply. It wasn't that way at first, but now it is. Excellent. Okay. Well, I don't have other questions, but I'm just looking ahead. Do you foresee, you know, Colleen, I know you're still, of course, raising funds through the Relief Fund and we've had such amazing generosity in the community coming forward and filling that fund. But do you foresee additional fundraising initiatives or other grant opportunities? And similarly, Erin, you mentioned the CPA money, which will, the Community Preservation Act money, which will be added to the amount that we have available for the tenant assistance program. But do you foresee any additional opportunities in Allie as well? Anything that you can explain to people listening about future opportunities that might be coming in the future to help with the current situation as well as what we see in the coming ahead? I guess I'll go first. So, yes, as I had mentioned, the CPA committee has provided the department with additional funding to supplement and just further the goal of the tenant assistance program for the small business assistance program. It is likely that after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development approves an action plan that we are in the process of working on, there will be additional funding for small business assistance. However, that is probably on a little bit of a later timeline than the CPA funding probably closer to the end of the summer. However, that is something that we are looking forward to as well. With regard to other funding sources specific to COVID-19, I'm not aware of any from our department, but as I mentioned before, sort of in response to the need that we see, we will continue to fundraise to be able to provide some of that, some financial assistance to the community, sort of moving forward, although I will say that from this grant, from this COVID-19 Relief Fund, it's a one-time grant. And, you know, we'll sort of assess over time if the need is greater than that, whether to reconsider, but at this point it is a one-time grant from that fund. And I will add that I am always on the lookout for more opportunities from any corner, all corners, for more business assistance. I maintain a COVID-19 business and nonprofit resource page that is on the town's website and I shared a link in the chat with everyone. Check back to that page frequently for any and all updates related to COVID-19 and business and it will be there. And those resources that you just referenced, Allie, are I think you can launch from the COVID-19 page on the town's ArlingtonMA.gov page directly to the Economic Development Resources, which provides a very comprehensive overview of the number of different things that we've talked about as well as other opportunities for people to apply to directly and then other things that we're looking at for the, you know, townwide. Okay, well, I just want to thank each one of you for participating and for the people who ask questions. Much appreciated. I hope we've been able to respond to you today. If you have further questions, please feel free to get in touch with us directly. We're going through the COVID-19 assistance side of the website. Thank you again, and I hope everybody has a great afternoon. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.