The City of Bakersfield awarded nearly $6 million to local businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related State closures and stay home orders through the

recently closed B-CARES Small Business Assistance Grant Program.

Launching on September 21, the B-CARES program provided grants of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, and $20,000 to almost 1,000 small businesses located in, or that provided services within, the City limits. The City initially allocated $3 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds to the program, later increasing that total in order to meet demand.

The program, administered through the City’s Finance Department, awarded $5.93 million to 938 businesses over the four months the program was active.

“We are extremely proud of the success of the B-CARES program and the support it provided to local businesses in need,” said City Manager Christian Clegg. “We appreciate the community feedback in helping us design a low-barrier program to assist our smallest businesses that were not eligible for other programs. We are also grateful for the terrific work done by our Finance Department to not only create this

program, but to execute it in an extremely short period of time.”

“Our staff put in many long hours, including time after normal business hours and over weekends in order to review the more than 1,500 B-CARES grant applications we

received,” said Finance Director Randy McKeegan. “I thank everyone who was a part of this program – including the Code Enforcement staff in the Development

Services Department and Technology Services. Without them, we could not have supported our local businesses to this extent.”

Finance Director McKeegan has compiled a final report for the B-CARES program, including details of business types that received funding and how much was awarded to each category.

The B-CARES program is just one example of the support the City provided to the community using $33.5 million in CARES Act monies to mitigate the impacts of the

pandemic. More than half that total – $18 million – was used to support community outreach efforts such as the Rental and Mortgage Assistance Relief program ($3

million), administered by the Housing Authority of the County of Kern (HACK) and other public-private partnerships.

While the B-CARES program is now closed, because of this success, the City may revisit it should additional funding become available in the future.