Anchorage virus assistance application window set to close

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The window is expected to close soon for hospitality businesses in Alaska’s largest city seeking coronavirus relief funding and officials have encouraged additional application submissions before a weekend deadline.

Alaska’s News Source reported Sunday that the grant program for Anchorage hospitality industry business without liquor licenses has not been filled and new applicants face a midnight Sunday deadline.

“We really are encouraging and reaching deep into the community to encourage as many of these businesses as possible to apply,” said Chris Schutte, director of the Municipality of Anchorage Office of Economic and Community Development.

The application period for a basic-needs voucher program is also set to close Sunday. Applicants who are accepted to the program are expected to receive gift cards for items including groceries, medicine and gas.

Applications to both programs are available through the municipality’s online coronavirus response dashboard.

Schutte said other assistance programs are scheduled to open soon following the recent passage of a $15.4 million relief package by the Anchorage Assembly.

The city’s rent and mortgage assistance program and a small business stabilization grant program have received additional funding.

The application period for small business grants opens Friday, while many Anchorage businesses who applied previously will be automatically registered.

“We can take all of the applicants that were eligible, but not selected in round two, and automatically enter them into the random selection process for round three,” Schutte said.

Schutte said $5 million will go toward grants for previous applicants, with $2 million reserved for new applicants.

All applicants who were previously accepted are unlikely to receive an additional grant because the program was already oversubscribed, Schutte said.

“There’s probably about $9.5 to $10 million of need based on those numbers alone, but there’s only $5 million available,” Schutte said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.