News

State Assistance
The pilot Henri/Ida Business Assistance Grant Program is a support measure to help businesses and nonprofits impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Henri and/or Hurricane Ida.

The program will provide grants from $1,000 up to $5,000 to New Jersey-based businesses and nonprofits that have up to 50 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) as reported on their last WR-30 form (Q2 2021) with the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOL) and have a physical commercial location in New Jersey that suffered physical damage as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Henri and/or Hurricane Ida.

The program is currently funded with $10,500,000 and may increase to $15 million. One-third of the initial request and one-third of the subsequent request (if necessary) will be reserved for entities in a census tract that was eligible to be selected as a New Jersey Opportunity Zone, but can be released back into the general program if demand from businesses and nonprofits in these areas has been met. Furthermore, $500,000 will be set aside for businesses and nonprofits impacted by Hurricane Henri, but can be released back into the general program pool if demand from these entities has been met.

The pilot program may be expanded if additional funds become available.
For more information on the program please see: https://www.njeda.com/henri-ida-relief/

Small Business Administration
Low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration are available to businesses and residents in New Jersey following the announcement of a Presidential disaster declaration due to the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Sept. 1-3, 2021.

Two loans are being offered for businesses:

Economic Injury Disaster Loans helps small businesses and other organizations meet working capital needs caused by the disaster. Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance is available regardless of whether the business suffered any physical property damage.

Physical Disaster Loans helps businesses or other organizations borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.

Somerset County businesses impacted by Ida will be eligible to apply for both loans.

Please see the following link for more information on how to apply including a short video on how: https://business.nj.gov/recent/ida

FEMA
Additionally, you may find these additional resources from FEMA helpful when applying for relief as an individual. We encourage you to continue to document any damage to your property and keep receipts to expedite the process.

Please see: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4614

Thanks to the Somerset County Business Partnership for providing this valuable information.