Impact Report: Beaverton's COVID-19 Business Recovery Grants

From Mayor Lacey Beaty: "When the pandemic hit, we asked our business community what specific assistance would be most helpful. Based on feedback, we developed a grant program with guiding values and over two years infused $6 million dollars into our business community through recovery grants. We knew that by supporting our local, small businesses we were taking great steps toward equitable recovery. Beaverton is proud of our thriving business community, and we are hopeful that these investments continue to support both existing and emerging business owners.”

In March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic brought business as usual to a halt as governments and communities scrambled to respond to the sudden and unknown threat. In an effort to get a handle on the climbing rate of infection and overwhelming hospitalizations, the State of Oregon enacted a State of Emergency, passing mandates restricting services and activities that were deemed high risk for spreading the new virus. The mandatory closures and changes in service threatened many small business' ability to continue operating. As in other cities across the country, Beaverton’s small businesses experienced a dire state of uncertainty and economic strain. The City of Beaverton ("the City" or "City") decided to take immediate action to help Beaverton’s small, independent businesses stay afloat, with a focus on those most vulnerable to sustained closures or reduction in sales.

The City of Beaverton rapidly organized to provide direct-to-business emergency assistance grants. Seven rounds of grants were offered to impacted small businesses, six by the City of Beaverton from Federal, State, and City funding and one round (Round 5) funded by the State of Oregon and administered through a partnership between Business Oregon and Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO). Across all grant rounds, 544 unique businesses were awarded grants.

Use the below dashboard to explore the grant disbursements. View by type of business, grant disbursement, or grant round by selecting different filters or layers and zooming in and out of the map.

From the beginning, the City of Beaverton's efforts focused on providing support to businesses most impacted by government mandates and consumer reluctance. We emphasized assistance to storefront businesses with diverse ownership and less ability to conduct business remotely. The City aimed to keep Beaverton open for business and prevent as many empty storefronts as possible.

We heard directly from business owners that assistance to sustain commercial rental and mortgage obligations was the most effective approach to provide immediate relief. We developed a set of values to guide the direct-to-business emergency assistance grant program.

City of Beaverton Grant Program Values

1. Help the most vulnerable businesses: Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) - and women-owned businesses with limited cash reserves and less access to capital.
2. Help the most damaged business types: Public facing businesses with fewer opportunities to work remotely and socially distance, businesses most impacted by consumer reluctance and those most impacted by on-going regulatory restrictions.
3. Help parents get back to work – e.g., helping daycare businesses helps parents get back to work.
4. Help storefront businesses since they are visible neighborhood amenities.
5. Help businesses that are being impacted by pandemic-related labor force challenges (e.g., hiring and retention) and supply chain disruptions.

In effort to keep barriers to emergency financial assistance low, the minimum documentation on business operations were requested during the application process, but the City of Beaverton reserved the right to request further documentation to determine need, how the grant was spent, or how the funds assisted the recipient business.

Central to the design of the City of Beaverton's COVID-19 grant program was input from local community members and impacted businesses as to their needs and how the City could be provide support to mitigate the impacts of the mandatory closures. Program objectives evolved as feedback was gathered through surveys, focus groups, one-on-one communications with businesses, and from applications.

Business Survey, Individual Interviews, Restaurant Focus Group, and Application Feedback Early in the City’s response, the Economic Development Division conducted a survey seeking insight into businesses' needs. In May 2020, most businesses indicated significant need for:

• Financial assistance to address rent and other operating expenses;
• Assistance with staffing, as many businesses highlighted difficulties finding and hiring qualified candidates in the competitive job market; and,
• For the City to find ways to help bolster consumer confidence, including addressing safety concerns, and marketing districts and neighborhoods as open for business.

In individual interviews, most business owners reported rising costs of doing business, but decreasing customer levels left businesses unable to sustain those higher costs. For most, the rising costs were primarily due to staffing demands, with some businesses reporting large pay increases to retain their employees.

A focus group with restaurant owners in late May of 2020 revealed industry short and long-term needs. Immediate needs focused on financial assistance to meet base expenses, such as rent, and non-monetary assistance in the form of guidance on navigating the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Long-term needs centered around help to re-open safely and in accordance with State mandates. Specific long-term concerns relayed in the focus group included:

• The need to expand outdoor seating;
• Challenges in obtaining personal protective equipment;
• For the City to explore the capping of fees from delivery companies;
• Guidance needs regarding liability risks; and,
• Requesting strong leadership from the City and clarification of State guidelines.

The City also compiled comments from business owners captured in grant applications to further understand their needs at multiple points during the pandemic.

City outreach practices evolved over time as we regularly strove to further extend outreach into communities often marginalized and left uninformed about opportunities to support their businesses. Primary methods of outreach to the business community was via direct mail and email lists to reach current business license holders and past recipients. When asked how applicants heard about the grant program, the most common answer was through email or other notification from the City of Beaverton. The grant program was also promoted on social media and through partner groups and organizations to their clientele and communities in Beaverton. In January 2022, several community partners received a small stipend to help promote the program and assist applicants.

Community Partners We partnered with community organizations to expand our outreach. Local organizations such as the  Beaverton Downtown Association ,  The Korean Society of Oregon ,  Adelante Mujeres ,  IMPACT Beaverton , the  Korean American Coalition ,  Partners in Diversity ,  Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon , the  Muslim Educational Trust , and more worked with the City to spread awareness of the grant program and assist applicants. Many of these external partners also provided translation assistance, as did several bilingual City staff members.

Funding for the business grant program initially came from the city’s general fund, and was later reimbursed by the CARES Act, which funded Rounds 1-6. Round 7 was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Grant funds were restricted to be only used for certain approved business expenses within particular timeframes. While initial grant funds provided rent reimbursement, later rounds provided grant funds for the following types of expenses:

• Base rent or mortgage principal and interest;
• Utilities;
• Inventory, supplies, PPE, and other items; and,
• Personnel costs, including payroll, hiring bonuses, or other expenses.

Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) - The CARES Act was passed on March 27, 2020, providing States access to federal funding for grants to assist small businesses in costs related to business interruptions caused by required closures. The City of Beaverton received a total of $4.161M, which was used to fund Rounds 1-4 and Round 6 of the business grant program.

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) - Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021. Beaverton City Council approved $1.875M for a seventh round of business grants using ARPA funds from Washington County.

Business Grants, Round 5: Business Oregon and Mirco Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO) - Round 5 of business grants in Beaverton was funded by Business Oregon and administered under contract by Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon. A total of $172,000 in grants went to 58 Beaverton businesses over this round. Ninety-eight percent of the businesses funded in this round had 10 employees or less. As Round 5 was not administered by the City, the recipients and data from that round is not reflected in the City's program outcomes or dashboard.

The City of Beaverton awarded $6.035M in direct financial assistance to small businesses in need between March 2020 and April 2022. A total of 544 unique businesses were given assistance to help them weather the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigation measures imposed by the State of Oregon. Just over 71% of all grants awarded went to businesses with 5 employees or less.

Of the 544 business who received grants, 93% are still open and operating within Beaverton City limits as of May 2022. Businesses closed for a variety of reasons, such as the sale of the business or inability to continue operating. However, overall vacancy rates for Beaverton only increased from 2.9% to 3.0% from March 2020 to March 2022, remaining below the 3.6% regional vacancy rate in March of 2022.

Measuring up to our values - At the beginning of the business grant program, we set five guiding values to ensure that we were supporting those businesses in our community that were most vulnerable and most impacted by mandatory closures and mitigation efforts. Now, two years on, we can look back and assess how well we adhered to these values and served our small business community.

1. Did we help the most vulnerable businesses? The majority, 63.97% of grants awarded went to BIPOC-owned businesses. Of all recipients, 53.13% are woman-owned businesses, 2.57% of grants were awarded to businesses with an owner who is a veteran, and 3.13% with an owner who is disabled. ..
2. Did we help the most damaged business types? All grant recipients were businesses that were unable to continue operating without serving customers in person. Restaurants and bars were the largest group of businesses impacted, equaling 41.36% of recipients. Personal care and grooming businesses, such as salons, were the next highest group, making up 21.51% of recipients. These were also two of the industry areas greatly impacted by customer reluctance when social distancing and other mitigation efforts were eased and businesses were reopening, along with Indoor Exercise Facilities (9% of recipients) and Entertainment Facilities (~1% of recipients). .
3. Did we help parents get back to work by supporting child care and other businesses? Child and adult care businesses were eligible for grant support in round 4 and 6 of the grant program. Twenty-seven child and adult care businesses received a combined total of $285,592.16, or 4.73% of total grants awarded. They made up nearly 5% of grant recipients. ..
4. Did we help storefront businesses that are visible neighborhood amenities? Ninety-seven percent of grants were awarded to storefront businesses. Only 3.31%, or 17, businesses were not storefront businesses and were all child or adult care businesses.

5. Did we help businesses that are being impacted by pandemic-related labor force challenges? Staffing was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory closures in many ways, from workplace health concerns, to closure of necessary family support facilities such as child care centers, and increased wage demands during a period of a decrease in revenue from falling customer levels. Supply chain disruptions raised inventory expenses and made personal protective equipment more difficult to obtain in necessary quantities. We repeatedly heard concerns from businesses around staffing challenges in application comments and in focus groups and interviews. Later rounds of the grant program allowed business owners to utilize grant funds to cover staffing costs.

The COVID-19 pandemic first began to impact the State of Oregon in January, 2020. New strain events, case counts, and mitigation discoveries demanded a ever-changing response. Track the events of COVID-19 in Washington County and learn more about individual rounds of the City of Beaverton's business grant program below.

 ^{Coronavirus case count totals courtesy of USA Facts:  Oregon coronavirus cases and deaths | USAFacts}  

Navigate around the map and click on markers to hear from some of our grant recipients.