California: Local Economic Assistance Program (LEAP)

The LEAP program is funded through the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) program. The mission of the LEAP program is to utilize ARPA funds to provide grants to small businesses that meet qualifications established by the Department of the Treasury’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Final Rule.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible businesses may be awarded up to $10,000 in grant funds through the LEA program, which is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
• On March 21, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law. The 1.9 trillion dollar package in intended to directly combat the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic impacts. ARPA allocates 350 billion dollars towards the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) as fiscal relief for state and local governments.
• The ARPA program provides governments the resources needed to:
  • Fight the impacts of the pandemic and support families and businesses
  • Improve public health and the economy

Eligible Businesses

• Assistance to Small Businesses
  • Small businesses have faced widespread challenges due to the pandemic, including periods of shutdown, declines in revenue, or increased costs. The SLFRF Final Rule provides many tools for recipients to respond to the impacts of the pandemic on small businesses, or disproportionate impacts on businesses where pre-existing disparities like lack of access to capital compounded the pandemic’s effects.
  • Small businesses eligible for assistance are those that experienced negative economic impacts or disproportionate impacts of the pandemic and meet the definition of “small business”, specifically:
    • Have no more than 50 employees, or if applicable, the size standard in number of employees established by the Administrator of the Small Business Administration for the industry in which the business concern or organization operates, and
    • Are a small business concern as defined in Section 3 of the Small Business Act (which includes, among other requirements, that the business is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field of operation).
• Impacted Small Businesses
  • Measures to identify impacted small businesses include:
    • Decreased revenue or gross receipts
    • Financial insecurity
    • Increased costs
    • Capacity to weather financial hardship, contracting COVID-19
    • Challenges covering payroll, rent or mortgage, and other operating costs
  • Assistance to small business that experienced negative economic impacts includes the following:
    • Grants to mitigate financial hardship, such as payroll and benefits, costs to retain employees, and mortgage, rent, utility, and other operating costs
    • Technical assistance, counseling, or other services to support business planning

For more information, visit City of Jurupa Valley.