 My fellow Seattleites,
We are facing one of the most transformative and consequential events that our region and our country will experience since World War II. Over the next few days, I want to provide a series of updates for workers, seniors, and individuals who may need child care.
Since our first case in King County on February 28, we’ve worked with Governor Inslee and County Executive Constantine to deploy measures that are critical to stopping the spread of COVID-19, which will save lives and help to ensure our health care system doesn't crash. These decisions weren’t made lightly, and they reflect the growing scientific consensus that if we don’t significantly increase mitigation efforts and prioritize true social distancing, the consequences for our region could be devastating.
Just as the virus has disproportionately affected vulnerable communities, we know that the measures taken to curtail the spread of the virus will disproportionately affect our small businesses and workers. Nothing has weighed more on my mind in recent weeks than the fears and anxiety of so many in our community of individuals who have lost their jobs and are worried about the basic needs for their families including meals, housing stability and their kids.
It is why I’ve prioritized a number of policies to help ease the burden of this challenging time to workers through giving $800 in new grocery vouchers to thousands of families and placing a moratorium on evictions for residents, small businesses, and non-profits. From deferring business taxes to converting on-street parking spaces near restaurants to temporary loading zones to help facilitate curbside meal pickup, we are looking at every tool at our disposable.
The State and County have also been great partners in this effort. Yesterday, I joined the Governor as he announced a suite of measures that included waiving the one-week waiting period on unemployment insurance, easing interest on late tax payments, and temporarily suspending forced tax collections. Yesterday’s announcement built on measures he announced last week to make unemployment insurance more flexible for employees and employers.
While at the state and local level, we are committed to deploying every resource we can, Congress and the President must also act on bold measures to support our unemployed workers and create jobs.
In the meantime, we aren’t waiting to take action here in Seattle. No other city has the determination and resiliency that we do.
Last week, the Mayor’s office announced actions to provide immediate relief for small businesses affected by COVID-19. These actions built off Governor Inslee’s announcement to help individuals whose employment has been affected by the pandemic. The initial support package included five components:
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Deferral of B&O Taxes. Effective immediately, the department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) will defer business and occupation (B&O) tax collections for eligible business owners, allowing small business owners increased flexibility during a period of financial duress caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Expansion of Small Business Stabilization Fund. The Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) expanded our Small Business Stabilization Fund to support income-qualified microbusinesses.
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Assistance to Access SBA Loans. OED will provide direct technical assistance to local small businesses and nonprofits to ensure they can immediately access the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) federal loan program, which is now available.
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Relief for Utility Payments. All Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and Seattle City Light (SCL) customers can set up deferred payment plans if their financial stability has been jeopardized by COVID-19.
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New Small Business Recovery Task Force. Former Governor Gary Locke and former Council President Bruce Harrell are leading the COVID-19 Small Business Recovery Task Force, which will advise on long-term policy recommendations and provide technical assistance and outreach.
Building on these measures, Mayor Durkan has announced $2.5 million in funds for the City of Seattle stabilization program which will invest directly in small businesses financially affected by COVID-19. The fund is an expansion of the Office of Economic Development’s (OED) Small Business Stabilization Fund, which the Mayor created to support small businesses whose operations were jeopardized by a destabilizing event. Eligible small businesses can receive a grant of up to $10,000.
In just five days after announcing the program, more than 1,800 eligible business applied. These grants will bring much needed relief to businesses who were the first to feel the economic impact of this outbreak. The federal government requires eligible CDBG small business awardees to have five employees or less and for the business owner to be at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income. In addition, the Mayor has directed OED to focus outreach on historically underserved small businesses who may be overlooked by the federal government’s Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster relief program.
Businesses can find more information here.
Shortly after the Congress passed legislation for low-interest rate loans through the Small Business Administration, the Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) moved quickly to apply for relief on behalf of the City. Small businesses in Seattle and King County are now eligible to apply for up to $2 million in low‑interest Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) to offset economic losses because of reduced revenues caused by the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. OED will be offering technical assistance and launching resources to help small businesses apply for SBA loans.
One of the first relief measures for workers and small businesses Mayor Durkan announced was a commitment to keep Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and Seattle City Light (SCL) services on during the COVID-19 Civil Emergency. This provided immediate utility relief for commercial customers, as well as residential, financially affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Effective immediately, all SPU and SCL customers could set up deferred payment plans if their financial stability was jeopardized by COVID-19.
This ensures the customers receive uninterrupted utility services as they work with utility service representatives to develop a long-term plan that meets their financial needs. In addition, Mayor Durkan transmitted legislation to eliminate the one percent late fee added to all past due balances.
Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities will also begin proactive outreach to small and midsize businesses that may already be experiencing financial difficulty to establish a payment arrangement that will support their continued operations through this emergency and beyond.
Customers financially impacted by COVID 19 are urged to set up payment plans with either Seattle City Light or Seattle Public Utilities by calling 206-684-3000 or sending an email 24/7 at http://www.seattle.gov/utilities/about-us/email-question.
UDP lowers Seattle City Light bills by 60 percent and Seattle Public Utility bills by 50 percent. To learn more about enrollment in UDP, call 206-684-0268. Eligibility requirements can be found here.
To further support small businesses and nonprofits affected by the pandemic, Mayor Jenny Durkan signed an Emergency Order temporarily halting commercial evictions in the City of Seattle. The order’s temporary moratorium on small business and nonprofit tenant evictions is effective immediately for any action related to the non-payment of rent or due to the expiration of the lease’s term during the moratorium. It will be in effect for at least 60 days or until the termination of the civil emergency declared in the Proclamation of Civil Emergency dated March 3, 2020.
Arts are part of our Seattle identity. This week, the Mayor announced $1.1 million in funding to invest directly in creative workers and arts and cultural organizations financially affected by COVID-19.
The investment is a combination of funding strategies designed to help the arts and culture sector through direct grants to organizations and creative workers most impacted by this crisis. The package is composed of two initiatives:
- $1 million Arts Stabilization Fund to invest in arts and cultural organizations to help mitigate revenue losses due to the moratorium on events and public gatherings.
- $100,000 in immediate relief for artists and creative workers through two private artist relief funds. The City’s Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) will invest $50,000 in the Seattle Artist Relief Fund, founded by Seattle author Ijeoma Oluo, which will bring the total current funding to $187,150. And ARTS will invest another $50,000 in Artist Trust’s COVID-19 Artist Relief Fund, which will provides rapid response grants supporting critical needs of artists whose livelihoods have been impacted by the pandemic.
You can find more information here.
 This week, we launched a social media campaign called #SupportSeattleSmallBiz to highlight small businesses and how residents can continue to support them in a safe way.
More than ever, now’s the time to #SupportSeattleSmallBiz and workers. One easy step you can take in Seattle is to tell your community about the small businesses you’re supporting.
So here’s our request: Post your pictures and videos from your favorite Seattle restaurants, bars, and cafes that are doing delivery, to-go, and drive-through with #SupportSeattleSmallBiz and #WeGotThisSeattle, and tag @SeattleEconomy.
We’re also asking small businesses to tell their stories and join in. We’ll be sure to help spread the word about businesses that are open for delivery, take out, and/or drive-through.
The measures we’ve taken this week are part of a commitment to help Seattle get through this challenging time. We are at the beginning of a marathon, not a sprint, and it will be tough, but we will get through it together.
As always, please continue to write me at [email protected], reach out via Twitter and Facebook, and stay up-to-date on the work we’re doing for the people of Seattle on my blog.
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