Accessibility Grants
San Francisco Accessibility Grant
San Francisco is taking applications from small businesses for grants of up to $3,000 towards CASp inspections. https://sf.gov/apply-small-business-grant-help-you-understand-and-plan-accessibility-improvements The application deadline is June 30th. There are a number of conditions and submittal requirements which could affect eligibility. The small business must have gross revenue under $2.5 million, it must be a public accommodation, it must be on the ground floor, it can't have an ADA lawsuit against it that is still pending, and the business must be required by its landlord to comply with the San Francisco Accessible Business Entrance program. That last one is interesting. The SF ABE program was the subject of an excellent CASI webinar in 2020, presented by Rick Halloran and Arne Lerner, both of whom were instrumental in the creation of the program. I will speculate that perhaps the intent of that last requirement, is not to give these grants in situations where a potentially large and well-funded landlord could and should be funding the accessibility improvements. The grant program is being administered by the SF Office of Small Business, 415-554-6134 sfosb@sfgov.org In addition to meeting all of the above requirements, the small business must meet ONE of the following: 1. Be located in one of the shaded areas on this map: 2. https://sfgov.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=95fe0685cb704d0ea45dbe28f1661656 3. Or be a nonprofit 4. Or have been sued for accessibility in the past or have received a complaint about accessibility ("Have been previously sued for access violations or business with a prior access complaint from the public or disabled persons"). 5. Or have at least one part owner whose family income is under the limits in the following sliding scale based on family size: 6. o Family of 1 must have an income less than $63,950 o Family of 2 must have an income less than $73,100 o Family of 3 must have an income less than $82,250 o Family of 4 must have an income less than $91,350 o Family of 5 must have an income less than $98,700 o Family of 6 must have an income less than $106,000 o (etc. for larger families) The grant program is being administered by the SF Office of Small Business, 415-554-6134 sfosb@sfgov.org. There is also a separate program in the works to fund accessibility design services--though for that one it looks like the owner's income cap (see #4 above) is mandatory. https://sf.gov/apply-free-design-services-your-small-business-storefront