BACP Reopening Framework Webinars

As Chicago continues to follow the Protecting Chicago reopening framework, the Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection will host webinars to help businesses and employees prepare for and understand the reopening plan. Learn about the City’s plan for reopening.

View the following PDFs for times, dates, and more information:

BACP Reopening Industry Webinars: Phase 4 Guidelines

BACP Reopening Webinars: Guidelines for Operating Indoors

• Food Service
• Retail
• Personal Services
• Health & Fitness
• Residential Building Offices
• Commercial Building Offices
• Hotels & Accommodation
• Childcare
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Transportation & Warehousing
• Healthcare
• Parks & Outdoor Attractions

OSHA: COVID-19 Overview

This webpage provides information for workers and employers about the evolving coronavirus outbreak first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The information includes links to interim guidance and other resources for preventing exposures to, and infection with, COVID-19.

View specific workplace guidance and orders here.

Phase 4 Guidelines for Bars & Restaurants

There is no set capacity cap for restaurants and bars based on the percentage of occupancy or number of people during Phase IV. Seated area capacity of restaurants and bars should be determined by arranging seating to provide a minimum of six feet between tables or other designated patron service areas.

Indoor dining can reopen with groups of 10 or less, with tables spaced 6-feet apart in seated areas and with standing-areas at no more than 25% of capacity. Capacity restrictions will be reassessed based on the latest science and public health metrics on an ongoing basis throughout Phase IV.

Read the full guidelines here.

Read the guidelines for Meetings and Social Events.

NOTE: The City of Chicago has yet to announce when Chicago will begin the Phase 3 Re-opening process.

Personal Care Service Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Hair salons, barber shops, nail salons, spas, massage parlors, waxing centers, tattoo parlors, and other providers of personal care services.

Restaurants and Bars Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Full-service restaurants, limited-service restaurants, snacks bars, taverns, and other food and beverage businesses.

Retail Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Grocery stores; hardware stores; clothing stores; pharmacies; department stores; shopping malls.

Health and Fitness Centers Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Gyms, fitness centers, yoga, dance, cycling, pilates, barre studios, and other customer-facing fitness centers.

Offices Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Non-customer-facing offices, legal offices, accounting services, architectural/engineering design, and other professional services.

Service Counters Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Stores providing assorted services for dropped off goods, dry cleaners, electronics repair shops, shoe repair shops, car washes.

Outdoor Recreation Guidelines and Toolkit (Coming Soon)

• Applies to: Customer facing services such as driving ranges, outdoor shooting ranges, paintball courses, outdoor adventure parks.

Day Camps Guidelines and Toolkit (Coming Soon)

• Applies to: Recreational youth programs, sports camps, recreational camps, educational camps.

Youth Sports Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Youth sports games/matches, group sports lessons, team or group sports practices (no competitive sports permitted in Phase 3).

Manufacturing Guidelines and Toolkit

• Applies to: Manufacturing facilities, plants, factories, mills.

Small Business Resilience Loan Fund

The City of Chicago is launching the new Small Business Resiliency Loan Fund as of March 19, 2020.  The new fund will provide more than $100 million in low-interest loans to severely impacted small businesses over the coming months, targeting historically under-resourced communities with an emphasis on minimizing hardship for those businesses and their employees.

Apply Now

What is SBA?

The Small Business Administration is the only cabinet-level federal agency fully dedicated to small business. It provides counseling, capital, and contracting expertise as the nation’s only go-to resource and voice for small businesses. It is a key resources for businesses who are in need of economic support in times of crisis.

Disaster Loan Assistance

On March 18, 2020, Illinois was declared a disaster area for COVID-19. You may be eligible to apply for an SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). These loans range from $500 to $2 million at a fixed 3.75% interest rate over a maximum payback of 30 years. Each application’s terms are decided on a case-by-case basis. So, you are likely eligible to apply if you have suffered substantial economic injury and are one of the following types of businesses:

• Small Business
• Small agricultural cooperative
• Most private nonprofit organizations

Check that your business qualifies and follow the simple 3 Step Process to apply for a loan.

Apply for a loan here.

Downstate Small Business Stabilization Program

This new $20 million program supports small businesses in suburban and rural counties across Illinois, providing grants of up to $25,000 to small businesses in communities served by DCEO’s Office of Community Development.

These grants will offer businesses of up to 50 employees the opportunity to partner with their local governments to obtain grants of up to $25,000 in working capital. The program redeploys Community Development Block Grant funds to support local small businesses.

Applications will be available on DCEO’s website by Friday, March 27. The grants will be offered on a rolling basis.

DCEO Grants for Small Restaurants With Under $1 Million in Revenue in 2019

To help small hospitality businesses make ends meet in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) is launching the Hospitality Emergency Grant Program with $14 million drawn from funds originally budgeted for job training, tourism promotion, and other purposes.

Grant funds are available to support working capital like payroll and rent, as well as job training, retraining, and technology to support shifts in operations, like increased pick-up and delivery.

Bars and restaurants that generated between $500K and $1M in revenue in 2019 are eligible for up to $25,000, and bars and restaurants that generated less than $500K in revenue in 2019 are eligible for up to $10,000. Hotels that generated less than $8M in revenue in 2019 are eligible for up to $50,000.

These grants will provide aid to the smallest operations in the hospitality segment, and every dollar helps during this time of crisis. The IRA appreciates this effort from DCEO, and will continue to advocate at the federal level for broad-based economic relief for the state’s 25,000+ eating and drinking establishments and their employees.

Businesses can submit an application online here.

Applications for awards will be accepted until 5:00pm on April 1, and winners will be chosen via a lottery. Therefore, there is no benefit to submitting an application first as long as a valid, complete application is received by the deadline.

Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund

DCEO and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) are establishing the Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund to offer small businesses low interest loans of up to $50,000.

Businesses located outside of the City of Chicago with fewer than 50 workers and less than $3 million in revenue in 2019 will be eligible to apply.

Successful applicants will owe nothing for six months and will then begin making fixed payments at a below market interest rate for the remainder of a five-year loan term.

Applications will be available on DCEO’s website by Friday, March 27. The grants will be offered on a rolling basis.

Illinois Business Interruption Grant Program

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) launched the first round of Business Interruption Grants by providing $60 million to businesses experiencing losses or business interruption as a result of COVID-19 related closures.

In the first wave of grants, priority will be given to small businesses that have been heavily restricted or completely shut down during the pandemic and are located in disproportionately impacted areas. An emphasis will also be placed on those businesses that are located in areas that have experienced recent property damage due to civil unrest, exacerbating the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Apply Now.

Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.

SBA will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities.

You can apply through any existing SBA 7(a) lender or through any federally insured depository institution, federally insured credit union, and Farm Credit System institution that is participating. Other regulated lenders will be available to make these loans once they are approved and enrolled in the program. You should consult with your local lender as to whether it is participating in the program.

Lenders may begin processing loan applications as soon as April 3, 2020. The Paycheck Protection Program will be available through June 30, 2020.

Paycheck Protection Program information

MAYOR LIGHTFOOT ANNOUNCES APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN FOR MORE THAN $15 MILLION ‘TOGETHER NOW’ GRANT FUND

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced that the City is now taking applications for the “Together Now” fund grant allocations which will help small businesses and not-for-profits in Chicago that have experienced economic distress and significant operational losses due to COVID-19, or have experienced damage from events of the weekend of May 29 and beyond.

The online application will be open to any eligible establishment throughout the City, and it will stay open until Monday, June 29, with grants distributed after the application deadline through a lottery system.

The fund is primarily comprised of multiple city-backed funding sources including money from the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF), Adopt-a-Landmark, and CARES Act funding, as well as corporate and individual donations.

Read the full press release here.

Small Business Live Restart Grant Fund

Accion Opportunity Fund partnered with Superfly to raise money to support small business owners working to overcome challenges related to COVID-19. The effort is part of Small Business Live, an online philanthropic music experience that took place on Saturday, June 20.

Selected small business owners will receive a grant of $5,000 to help restart their business. At least 50% of funds will be allocated to current Accion and Opportunity Fund loan clients. The other 50% of grantees will be selected from the pool of eligible applicants.

Apply now.