Since the County-wide shut-down in March, 2020, San Jose businesses have suffered serious losses, as have families and individuals. The City stood up a Liaison Branch within the Emergency Operations Center that had been engaged since February in pandemic response. Within the Liaison Branch that was largely staffed by OED's business development staff, then fielded a Small Business Unit tasked with working with the vulnerable small businesses and the support organizations locally, regionally and nationally to develop tacts that could help them weather the pandemic.

As the City has progressed through the initial stages of pandemic response into economic recovery, we have continued to field and manage a wide range of activities designed specifically to support vulnerable small and medium-sized businesses.

Supporting Access to Emergency Funding

• OED actively promoted and supported businesses to apply for federal stimulus funds. More than 12,000 businesses located in San Jose were successful in receiving a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loan. It is estimated that over $1 billion of federally backed stimulus loans were secured for businesses located in San Jose.
• Established and fundraised for the Silicon Valley Strong Small Business Grant Program which provided $1.42 million (142 grants of $10,000) to eligible small businesses in San Jose that suffered financial loss due to the COVID-19 crisis. The fund was an innovative partnership between the City of San Jose, Silicon Valley Community Foundation and The Opportunity Fund- a leading community development financial institution (CDFI) based in San Jose.
• CDBG microenterprise business grant program: the City’s Housing Department and Office of Economic Development provided $2.175 million in funding (145 grants of $15,000 each) to businesses based in San Jose employing five or fewer staff. The program was co-designed and managed by The Opportunity Fund
• The new Rent Relief Grant Program: the City of San José has allocated $3.8 million of CARES Act federally funded Coronavirus relief funds to provide grants of up to $15,000 to small businesses located in San Jose. The grant program will be launched on September 9^th through September 22^nd and is being managed by the San Jose based Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Policy Changes, New Programs

• Construction Hours changes - Emergency Order signed that extends the allowed construction hours for construction projects over 50,000 sf or 50 residential units to mitigate the reduced rate of construction.
• Development Services rapid response
  • Quickly established a Permit Center Remote Procedures webpage for continuation of permit, plan review, and inspection services during closure of City Hall.
  • Quickly advanced digital inspection forms, enabling business customers (and all customers) to obtain digital inspection information online
  • Chief Building Official extended all building permits for 180 days beyond their expiration date with the option of further extension for those with extenuating circumstances.
• City Council amended the Zoning Ordinance to extend planning permits by two years and to extend tree removal permits by eight months. 
• San Jose Al Fresco
  • Five separate Emergency Orders signed by City Manager to allow tree and streamlined registration/application process for the expansion of business operations into private parking lots, onto public sidewalks and on-street parking spaces, in plazas and parks, City-owned parking lots and streets closed to vehicular traffic.
  • Social media posts, Flash Report items, e-blasts, new web pages on business/emergency website with translations into Spanish, Vietnamese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese
  • Worked with City Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services Department’s Placemaking Team to do in-person outreach to small businesses in 12 key commercial areas across the city in all 10 Council Districts, supported with multi-lingual signage, flyers, etc.
• Workforce development
  • Shifted all operations including training and placement to online
  • Held four online Job Fairs, including one each in Spanish & Vietnamese, 20+ companies, 200+ attendees per session
  • Planned 10-week paid work experience and training program for residents who became unemployed due to COVID; includes supportive services
• Small business support and training initiatives:
  • Created collaborative partnerships under Business Owner Space that includes SBA local office, Silicon Valley SBDC, Small Business Majority, NBDs and Chambers of Commerce, AnewAmerica, Kiva, Start Small Think Big, Working Solutions, Opportunity Fund, Silicon Valley SCORE and more. Collaborations included webinars, videos, training sessions, PSAs, new alerts.

Communications with Businesses

• Website
  • Developed and deployed new sub-site for business- https://www.sjeconomy.com/why-san-jose/covid-19-guidance
  • Includes news updates, calendar of events/webinars, videos of webinars, other COVID-19 related videos in three languages, info and links to County and State Orders, guidance
  • Updated several times per week with news, added webinars, videos
• Developed a data-based mapping tool that can help identify micro-areas of business vulnerability; worked with neighborhood business associations and community groups to leverage multi-lingual support in those areas.
• Targeted outreach
  • Set up and promoted a hotline and email to answer business owners’ and workers’ questions and concerns. Provided support and resources to hundreds of businesses.
  • Eblasts – Utilized emails provided on business tax registrations to send 1,643,524 emails over 55 blasts with an average open rate of 39%.
  • Held 15 small business support and training webinars with 1,380 attendees, including sessions in Spanish & Vietnamese
  • Initiated a proactive outreach program to touch key small businesses in every council district to assess their business status and current needs.
• “Broadcast” communications
  • Videos and public service announcements
  • Social media posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
  • Flash Report items sent through City EPIO to 50K subscribers