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Nearly 700 small businesses across Michigan have been awarded $10 million in grants through the Pure Michigan Small Business Relief Initiative. Administered by the Michigan Municipal League Foundation, the program was launched to provide relief for small businesses that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, targeting businesses that fell under the DHHS epidemic orders that took effect at the end of last year.
View list of awarded businesses
The program utilized $10 million in federal U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CARES Act funding to provide economic assistance to small businesses across the state. Michigan’s small businesses that were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic were able to apply for grants of up to $15,000 through the program.
MEDC selected the Michigan Municipal League (MML) Foundation as the single, statewide grant administrator for the program. MML Foundation reviewed submitted applications from all 10 prosperity regions across the state (see table below for more information).
Pure Michigan Small Business Relief Initiative
Counties included in each prosperity region and allocation amounts are listed below.
To be eligible to receive grant funding, businesses must be in one of the industries listed below:
Because this Initiative is funded through federal CARES Act dollars distributed by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the Michigan Community Development Block Grant program, businesses must satisfy the HUD National Objective for job retention in order to receive funding.
The business must document that at least 51% of positions will be held by low to moderate income persons or in the case of microenterprises (five or fewer employees) that the business owner is a low to moderate income individual. This information will be requested by the Grant Administrator following the PMSBRI Application and only from businesses whose application meets all other initial screening criteria, including applications that are “first in” to the extent that funding is available.
Grants may only be used for the following eligible expenses: payroll expenses, rent/ mortgage payments, and utility expenses. Grant funds may be used by the business for eligible expenses expended between November 18, 2020 and April 30, 2021. Grant funds may not be used for any eligible expenses that were previously funded or will be funded by another state or federal grant program, including but not limited to, the Michigan Small Business Relief Program or the Michigan Small Business Restart Program.