Nearly the entirety of Sacramento’s $89 million of federal coronavirus aid has been allocated. The city’s council recently voted on how to spend the last iteration of funds, including a few subcategories for small business assistance, tourism, culture and the arts, employment growth, and services for the homeless. 

From the beginning of the pandemic, Sacramento Mayor Darell Steinberg indicated his intention of using the aid to help the city’s disadvantaged and underserved populations.  He also shared his interest in helping nonprofits that had been in line for Measure U sales tax funding. 

“It’s a significant achievement what we have done thus far to intentionally decide we’re going to spend this money on and in our community and then to execute it in the way we have,” Steinberg said. 

The category with the largest allocation of $22 million is small business assistance, with most of the money being distributed in the second round of funding for 1,347 Sacramento businesses. Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso reported that this round of funding saw a diversified pool of applicants than the original round of loans, which mostly went to businesses in the center of Sacramento.