Grants for businesses impacted by Helene are on the way in Haywood County
Small businesses wiped out by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 27 are looking for a lifeline after the North Carolina General Assembly’s latest relief bill left many of them underwater. Jack Snyder photo
A coalition of Haywood County community organizations, quasi-governmental institutions, local businesses and private individuals have stepped in where the North Carolina General Assembly wouldn’t — by creating a fund that will make grants to small businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene.
On Oct. 24, the General Assembly passed its second Helene relief bill in as many weeks, adding $604 million in spending to the $273 million allocated in the first relief bill passed on Oct. 9.
Although the second bill did allocate substantial sums to critical economic sectors, including $50 million in loans for small businesses across disaster-impacted counties, a Smoky Mountain News investigation found that thousands of business owners in Western North Carolina took out millions in loans during the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020 — loans they’re still paying back.
In Haywood County alone, nearly 500 legal business entities borrowed almost $23 million from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which offered 30-year fixed rate loans at rates up to 3.75%.
As Haywood Chamber President and CEO David Francis made his way through the business community, offering small grants and loans to impacted businesses, he kept hearing the same thing, he told Haywood County Commissioners on Nov. 4.
“David, we cannot do a loan. I’m still paying loans from COVID. I have a loan from [2021 Tropical Storm] Fred. I have a loan from COVID and Fred,” Francis recalled.
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With Haywood TDA Executive Director Corrina Ruffieux, Francis envisioned a larger grant program, administered by the nonprofit Haywood Advancement Foundation, that could put more money out on the street.
Initial funding in the amount of $100,000 will come from HAF, but Francis said that other donors have already begun to augment that total. David Colquitt, co-owner of The Swag, matched the initial $100,000. The TDA will contribute and create a program of its own. The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce will also contribute. Three individuals, two from Florida and one from Georgia, have pledged unspecified amounts. Even the tiny Graham County town of Lake Santeetlah — population 41 — chipped in with $2,000 from its municipal budget.
“We’re small. We don’t have a huge budget, but we decided we wanted to do something,” said Diana Simon, Lake Santeetlah’s mayor. “I wanted to do something for small businesses.”
Starting on the afternoon of Nov. 6, for-profit Haywood County businesses that experienced significant physical damage to property or inventory can visit haywoodadvancement.org, haywoodchamber.com or visithaywood.com to apply for grants up to $25,000.
But there are some caveats. Nonprofits and multifamily long-term or short-term rental residences are not eligible for the grants, nor are companies with more than 25 employees, entities in bankruptcy, or with judgements, tax liens or tax debts to Haywood municipalities.
An independent committee will evaluate the applications. Francis said he hopes the grants can be disbursed beginning in December.
Informed by a survey of more than 600 business owners, HAF has determined that grant funds can be used for what survey respondents said were their greatest needs — inventory replacement, lease payments, mortgage assistance, business property, equipment and payroll.
Commissioner Jennifer Best recognized that Haywood County is a “community of small businesses,” especially in light of the closure of Pactiv Evergreen’s Canton paper mill, one of the region’s largest employers, in June 2023.
“We’ve really got to lean in to protecting our small businesses and keeping legs under them,” Best said.
The General Assembly is expected to return to Raleigh Nov. 19, where it’s possible additional flood relief funding will be considered, but grants to businesses aren’t widely expected to be part of the plan. Indeed, on a state level, they rarely are.
Congress may provide some, but it isn’t in session at the moment, and current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has shown little interest in calling representatives back any time soon. President Joe Biden expressed frustration — in concert with North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis — with the lack of urgency during an Oct. 29 call to Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
Tillis, during an Oct. 17 visit to Canton with Gov. Roy Cooper, said he favored some sort of restructuring of COVID-era loans that could open up new opportunities for business owners twice bitten by circumstances beyond their control. Cooper expressed a desire to see the General Assembly create a small business grant program.
Prior to the General Assembly passing its second relief package, Cooper offered one of his own — $3.9 billion instead of $604 million from the state’s $4.4 billion Rainy Day Fund. Cooper’s proposal included $475 million in grants for businesses, but that idea never made it anywhere near the Republican-penned final draft of the relief bill he ended up signing.
Last week, Jackson County Economic Development announced its own business grant program.
