Many St. Pete Small Businesses and Workers Eligible For $500-$5,000 Grants

It's a quiet scene right now downtown St. Pete with closed bars, restaurants and shops. St. Petersburg is helping out businesses and their employees who've lost money due to the coronavirus outbreak. The "Fighting Chance Fund" is an emergency grant for "about 1,000 restaurants, bars, retail and service-based businesses." A business can get a $5,000 grant. Eligible employees get $500.

For the $5,000 business grant, you must be locally owned and located in St. Pete with 25 employees or less. To get the $500 grant as an employee, you need to be a St. Pete resident that works at one of those types of businesses I just described. You're eligible if you were let go, furloughed or had your salary reduced by at least 50%. You'll need to provide pay stub copies and possibly something in writing from your employer.

Some of the types of businesses this is intended to help include salons, tattoo shops, child care providers, laundry services, pet care, fitness centers and event hosts. These are NOT loans. You don't have to pay the city back. For more info and to see if you can get some money out of this, to StPete.org.

It might not be your dream job, but if you're out of work and need a paycheck fast, these companies say they're hiring.