The goal of the grant is to help businesses keep their spaces clean and safe. (WFIU/WTIU News)
The City of Bloomington is offering a new grant that will assist businesses in improving safety, hygiene and appearance.
The 2025 Small Business Safety and Cleanliness Grant has $85,000 from the city’s annual budget available to distribute. Businesses can apply once a year to receive up to $5,000 that could go towards projects like preventing crime and vandalism, improving hygiene and installing safety systems. Businesses can also apply to be reimbursed for related projects they have done in the past six months.
Andrea de la Rosa, the city’s assistant director for small business development, said she decided to launch this grant because businesses have suffered more damage from vandalism and sanitary issues. She said this is due in part to the influx of the homeless population.
“We’re talking about human waste, encampment clear-outs, things like that,” she said. “Businesses struggle because that is not something that they have calculated in their overhead, and it's also something that as a business owner, most business owners don't feel like they should have to, and so to assist the business owners, we're offering this to help them out with that.”
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De la Rosa said this grant can also help businesses improve their appearance to attract more tourism. She wants people to feel welcomed and safe.
“We want people to come to the city and say, ‘hey, I want to live here,’” she said. “And I think that that is a huge part of the attraction that we're trying to do right now, especially with people between the ages of 25 and 44, we want them to come here and start their families. We want them to come here and get jobs and start their businesses and things like that.”
De la Rosa hopes the assistance this grant provides businesses will encourage them to stay and feel supported. In uncertain economic times, she said, she wants to help businesses stay afloat and safe.
“When you start your hair salon, you're not thinking about having heavy security for your salon. You're hoping that nobody's going to break your windows,” she said. “That's what insurance is for, but insurance doesn't always cover everything. It only covers certain things. So if we can help businesses subsidize that overage that they weren't expecting, we would love to be able to do that.”
The city will accept applications on a rolling basis and award money until it runs out. No grants have yet been awarded; de la Rosa said they are still going through the review process where applications are reviewed individually and measured based on a scoring system. Applications must include a project description, cost estimate, contractor invoice, photos of current conditions, proof of business location within city limits and a proposed project timeline. De la Rosa has applied to get funding for this grant for next year.
