In addition to regular utility bill assistance programs such as LIHEAP and Project RELIEF, there are a number of financial assistance and loan programs that our residential and commercial customers may be eligible for,
which could be used for CWLP bill payment. See our listing below and also refer to the City of Springfield’s COVID-19 resource page, https://www.springfield.il.us/COSCovid19.aspx.
General Assistance
United Way, call 211 or visit United Way of Central Illinois’ website, click here. For the United Way 211 website click here.
Abundant Faith Ministries, 217.527.1006
Salvation Army of Springfield, 217.525.2196
Back to Business Grant
The State of Illinois' Back 2 Business Small Business Recovery Grant Program offered small businesses with revenues less than $20 million recovery grants for those hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Check back to see if a new round of grant applications for this program will reopen here.
Community Services Block Grant Program
Sangamon County Community Resources provide services that assist low-income people to attain the skills, knowledge, and motivation necessary to achieve self-sufficiency. Through their
Community Services Block Grant Program they offer housing assistance, emergency services programming and more.
Applying in person is no longer required and a new easy web application is one way to pre-qualify to make the process go faster www.helpillinoisfamilies.com. 217.535.3120.
Coronavirus-Related Paid Leave for Workers Tax Credits
As a follow-up to the federal government’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act,
IR-2020-57 was introduced regarding Coronavirus-Related Paid Leave for Workers and Tax Credits for Businesses. If your business is looking at the possibility of laying off employees, this provision should be examined in conjunction with Governor Pritzker’s Executive Order issued on Friday, March 20.
COVID-19 and Unemployment Benefits
Unemployment benefits may be available to some individuals whose unemployment is attributable to COVID-19. IDES recently adopted emergency rules to try to make the unemployment insurance system as responsive to the current situation as possible.
For more information please visit their website.
Please note: if you file an Unemployment Insurance claim on or after July 17, 2016 and you are subject to the registration requirement, you must complete your registration immediately through www.IllinoisJobLink.com.
Your Unemployment Insurance benefits will not be paid until your registration is complete. Click here to apply
COVID-19 Response Fund
The Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln and United Way have partnered together with $50,000 in seed money to start the COVID-19 Response Fund. So far, donors have contributed more than $120,000 and already deployed its
first grant of $30,000 to the Central Illinois Foodbank. This grant will be used to purchase non-perishable foods for an increasing number of Springfield-area families and individuals facing food insecurity.
Those interested in donating to the fund, click here.
DCEO Emergency Assistance Programs
Get Hired Illinois
DCEO in conjunction with IDES launched the Get Hired Illinois. This new portal is designed to connect workers with available job and career training opportunities across the state. Residents and employers may access
the site here. Illinois residents will also have free access to online workforce development courses via a partnership with Coursera.
Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund
The Illinois Small Business Emergency Loan Fund will 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.
Business Interruption Grants (BIG) has applications ready and set to go live September 17th.
A total of $220 million will be made available for small businesses of all types in Illinois under this round of BIG programming to provide economic relief for small businesses hit hardest by COVID-19. Funding may be used to help businesses with working capital expenses, including payroll costs; rent; utilities; and other operational
Learn more and see how to apply: https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/SmallBizAssistance/Pages/C19DisadvantagedBusGrants.aspx
In addition to the Business Interruption Grants, the Governor also announced DCEO's new program, Distressed Communities Program, will provide $25 million to support Illinois businesses that have sustained property damage as a result of civil unrest during the recent protests and demonstrations on or after May 25, 2020.
Federal CARES Act
The City of Springfield is closely following the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The Small Business Owner’s Guide to the CARES Act is a document that has been created to help small business owners understand this bill better. Click here to read this guide.
Justine Petersen COVID-19 Relief Program
Justine Petersen is offering low interest small business loans to Illinois businesses impacted by this current pandemic. Maximum loan size is $50,000, with an interest rate of 3% amortized over 5 years. Loan proceeds may be used for working capital
or to address other costs incurred during, or as a result of, the Covid-19 crisis. For more information, contact JP staffer Galen Gondolfi at ggondolfi@justinepetersen.org, call 314.565.2223, or the City’s Office of Planning & Economic Development at 217.789.2270.
LIHEAP Update
LIHEAP stands for Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The program, which provides qualifying Sangamon County residents with
financial help to cover their energy bills, has been allocated additional funding in 2021 winter heating season. Eligibility is
based on income and has been expanded
by the general assembly too no more than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (from 150%). This will allow more people to qualify.
Households of four making $4,300 monthly or less would qualify. In 2019, the average household received $600 in assistance.
Applying in person is no longer required and forms are available online,
Residents can also call the local Sangamon County LIHEAP and Community Resources Office 217.535.3120. The LIHEAP office is located in Suite C100, 2833 S. Grand Avenue East (the former Cub Foods building).
LISC Small Business Relief Grants
Applications are open for LISC Small Business Relief Grants in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $20,000.
LISC will use the funding to provide grants to businesses facing immediate financial pressure because of Covid-19. Grants can be used for:
- Payables to include rent and utilities
- Payroll (to include the applicant)
- Paying outstanding debt to vendors
- Other immediate operational costs
For more about LISC, visit https://www.lisc.org/covid-19/small-business-assistance/small-business-relief-grants/frequently-asked-questions/
Main Street Lending Program
The program is to assist small and mid-sized businesses with the purchase of up to $600 billion in loans. The Department of the Treasury, using funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) will provide $75 billion in equity to the facility.
The Main Street Lending Program will enhance support for small and mid-sized businesses that were in good financial standing before the crisis. The program:
- Apply for regular unemployment before you apply for PUA.
- If you applied for regular unemployment and have been denied between April 1, 2019 and today, do not reapply.
- Go into your regular unemployment account and set up direct deposit for payment.
- Have your 2019 tax return or proof of income ready and available.
- Be prepared to certify.
- Remember: You must submit a new application for PUA. The two systems are not transferrable.
- A guide can be downloaded here.
Mortgage and Housing Rental Assistance
Rental Assistance
Restaurant Revitalization Fund
The American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. Eligible entities include restaurants, food stands and trucks, caterers, bars, bakeries, wineries and more. This program will provide funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location.
Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as funds are used for eligible uses no later than March 11, 2023. Learn more,
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/restaurant-revitalization-fund.
Office of Planning & Economic Development Housing Programs
The City of Springfield’s Office of Planning and Economic Development has Community Development Block Grant Programs and other assistance available. To learn more about these programs visit
https://www.springfield.il.us/Departments/OPED/ResidentResources/housingPrograms.aspx
or contact that office at info@OPED.springfield.il.us or 217.789.2377.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
To ensure homeowners and renters have the most up-to-date and accurate housing assistance information during the COVID-19 National Emergency, the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and HUD launched the new Mortgage and Housing Assistance website.
Visit the site
Illinois Foreclosure Prevention Network: 888.252.1119
Contact an IDHS Service Provider Agency in your area using the directory below to find out if you’re eligible, ask about rental assistance, and get help with applying. These organizations can help you get the necessary referral to apply for rental assistance
because you cannot apply on your own.
Find out if you qualify for emergency housing assistance in Illinois due to financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, https://www.illinoishousinghelp.org/.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security is accepting applications for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
- Offers 4-year loans to companies employing up to 10,000 workers or with revenues of less than $2.5 billion in 2019 annual revenues.
- Principal and interest payments will be deferred for one year.
- Eligible banks may originate new Main Street loans or use Main Street loans to increase the size of existing loans to businesses.
- Banks will retain a 5 percent share, selling the remaining 95 percent to the Main Street facility, which will purchase up to $600 billion of loans.
- Minimum loan size of $1m.
- Maximum loan size that is the lesser of (i) $150 million, (ii) 30% of the Eligible Borrower’s existing outstanding and committed but undrawn bank debt, or (iii) an amount that, when added to the Eligible Borrower’s existing outstanding and committed but undrawn debt, does not exceed six times the Eligible Borrower’s 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (“EBITDA”);
- Firms seeking Main Street loans must commit to make reasonable efforts to maintain payroll and retain workers.
- Borrowers must also follow compensation, stock repurchase, and dividend restrictions that apply to direct loan programs under the CARES Act.
- Firms that have taken advantage of the PPP may also take out Main Street loans.
- Must be a business created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States with significant operations in and a majority of its employees based in the United States.
- Eligible Borrowers that participate in the Facility may not also participate in the MSNLF or the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility.
- Prepayment permitted without penalty.
Learn more, https://ides.illinois.gov/unemployment/expiring-programs/expired-programs-archive0/learn-more.html
Small Business COVID Relief Program
This new program was introduced by Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs. The Program is an impact investment loan program under which the State Treasurer would make up to $250 million in deposits available to financial institutions
throughout the state, at near-zero rates, to assist Illinois small business and non-profits negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this funding is to provide vital economic support to small businesses and non-profits
throughout Illinois to help overcome the loss of revenue they are experiencing. Click here to find out more.
US Small Business Administration Loans
To further meet the needs of U.S. small businesses and non-profits, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a number of programs for loans and debt relief.
Paycheck Protection Program provides loans to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program offers long-term, low interest assistance for a small business or non-profit. These loans can provide vital economic support to help alleviate temporary loss of revenue. EIDL assistance can be used to cover payroll and inventory, pay debt or fund other expenses. Additionally, the EIDL Advance will provide up to $10,000 ($1,000 per employee) of emergency economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing temporary difficulties, and these emergency grants do not have to be repaid.
SBA’s Debt Relief program will pay 6 months of principal, interest, and any associated fees that borrowers owe for all current 7(a), 504, and Microloans in regular servicing status as well as new 7(a), 504, and Microloans disbursed prior to September 27, 2020.
Youth Service Bureau Utility Bill and Rent Relief Assistance
The Youth Service Bureau has just added a new utility bill assistance and rent relief program for ages 18-24. Call 217.529.8300 or email ysb@ysbi.com to find out how to apply.
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