Long Beach is establishing a relief fund for businesses that were damaged or looted in the hours after a large protest last month that saw thousands of people flood Downtown demanding police reforms and justice for George Floyd.
The recommendation to establish the Rebuild Long Beach Relief Fund came from Mayor Robert Garcia’s office with support from nearly have the City Council. While it’s in the planning stages, the fund could use a combination of grants, low-interest loans, donations and other tax breaks and permit waivers to help businesses recover from the losses they suffered during the looting on the night of May 31.
“I think as a city we have to be committed to every single business that was affected on May 31,” Garcia said. “They all deserve our support, they all have been invested here in Long Beach and I want to make sure they all have support from the city in some way.”
Garcia said that the damage ranges from just broken windows to large losses in inventory and one complete loss that occurred at the Men’s Suit Outlet at the corner of Seventh Street and Pine Avenue, which was gutted by fire that night.
Some business owners have insurance that will cover the losses while others might need help with large deductibles. Others, Garcia said, just want help with the cost of buying the plywood they used to board up their stores.
While the city will look into creating a donation portal, other sources of money could come from public grants and deferred property tax and permit payments to the city and county. The city had previously took steps to establish a separate fund for businesses struggling through the COVID-19 shutdowns.
The Downtown and Cambodia Town business districts have created their own support funds and grant programs to help local shops recover from damage but now the city will be putting its weight behind the effort.
Councilman Rex Richardson said that the outreach opportunity could be two-fold: It could connect business owners with needed capital to repair their shops but also help those in eligible corridors get federal funding that existed before COVID-19 to beautify and improve low-income communities.
“I think this is an opportunity to say, while we have everyone’s attention, that ‘glass can be fixed, a lot of these things can be replaced,’ but how can we get the captive audience of these businesses to improve their signs, paint their buildings?” Richardson said.
Councilwoman Mary Zendejas, whose district was one of the most impacted by looting, said her staff is putting together a workshop for business owners to provide them with the step-by-step instructions they will need to take advantage of any services that come out of the new relief fund. There are no confirmed dates or details for the planned meeting as of Wednesday, according to her office.
How much this will cost the city is unknown. The memo sent from the mayor’s office said that the financial management team was not consulted prior to the vote because of the urgency of item but that it will assess the potential fiscal impact and report back to the City Council.