Program Eligibility And Process

• Applicants shall be Tehama County residents operating for-profit business physically located and operating within Tehama County with a demonstrated economic need as a direct result of COVID-19.
• Applicants must provide a State of California issued Driver’s License or Identification Card to show proof of residency.
• Grants will be limited to one grant per business entity. Franchise-based businesses are not eligible for funding under this program.
• Businesses must have 20 full-time equivalent employees (FTE) or less. Self-employed business owners are eligible. (30+ hour per week equals 1.0 FTE; a part-time employee working 29 hours or less per week equates to 0.5 FTE.)
• To be eligible for funding under this grant program, that obligation cannot be incurred prior to March 3, 2021. Applicants will need to provide statement(s) or billing(s) showing amounts due for which this grant would directly pay (i.e., name and contact information for landlord, etc.)
• Applicants must have no outstanding local, state, federal tax liens nor judgments, or if this is applicable, must provide documentation of their current payment plan.
• Applicants must have no bankruptcy within the last three years; bankruptcies must have a discharge date at least (3) years prior to the date of grant application, verified through credit check. No minimum credit score is required.
• It must be demonstrated and certified that the applicant has been in operation since March 1, 2020. Accepted documentation includes: one year of federal business tax returns or Fictitious Business Name Statement filed on or prior to March 1, 2020
• For communities that require a business license (Red Bluff, Corning, and Los Molinos), applicants must show evidence of current license. Businesses located outside these jurisdictions must provide a current certified Tehama County Fictitious Business Name Statement.
• Applicants must attest to:
  • Their business adhering to all local, Federal, and State guidance related to COVID-19.
  • Not using these grant funds for the same purposes as other federal, state, or local funding received, such as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, or other state and local grants, as this would constitute a duplication of benefits under federal guidelines.
  • Grant funds being utilized for expenditures directly related to impacts from COVID-19.

• Applications will be accepted electronically (or alternatively in written form) during a four-week period.
• After the four-week application window, eligible businesses will be selected to receive the grant funds on a lottery basis, with funding allocations on a basic per jurisdiction level.
  
  

* Percent of allocated funding based on an analysis of the 2020 Census for Tehama County.

• If there are not adequate applicants to fill their per-jurisdiction allocation for any single jurisdiction at the end of the four-week application, then recipients will be chosen randomly from the remaining businesses within the pool.