COVID-19 Small Business Assistance Dashboards

Since March 2020, the City of Cambridge provided direct relief and other assistance programs to help our small business community during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The programs are funded through several federal and local funds. As of August 2022, the City has provided over $6.6 million in direct relief to small businesses.

The first dashboard on this page provides a summary of the data on programs between March 2020-June 2021. Funding during this time period came from the Community Development Block (CDBG) CARES Act federal funded grant programs, the Mayor’s Disaster Relief Fund for small businesses, and the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA) Zero-Interest Loan program. These programs distributed nearly $3.7 Million to Cambridge small businesses financially impacted by the COVID-19 public health crisis.

The Cambridge Redevelopment Authority Zero-Interest Loan program, administered in cooperation with Cambridge Savings Bank, provided loans of up to $15,000 to small businesses that have qualified to participate in the Mayor’s Disaster Relief Fund.

The second dashboard provides a summary of the data on the small business grants provided through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding. It currently provides data from the Restaurant and Nightlife Relief (Spring 2022) and Small Business Relief (Summer 2022) Grants and will be updated with future exit survey data.