BELLE GLADE — Sherry Howard, deputy director of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (BDB), came to spread the word about assistance programs available due to the coronavirus crisis for the Lake O Regional Economic Alliance when LORE’s board members met virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

With Palm Beach County finally now moving into a partial Phase 2 reopening under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ step-by-step plan, she wanted to make the businessmen and women and various Glades Region stakeholders involved in the LORE Alliance aware of the county government’s assistance programs for local businesses and residents who have been disproportionately affected by all the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sept. 9, Howard (who can be reached via email at showard@pbcgov.org) sent an email to all participants to share the contact information for the programs she talked about.

There are three assistance avenues open to people, homeowners or renters, who have been having trouble paying for mortgages or rent, food and essential home repairs during the pandemic due to job loss or other economic difficulties:

• Emergency Repair Program link — discover.pbcgov.org/HES/Pages/Coronavirus-Relief-Fund-(CRF)-Emergency-Repair-Program.aspx

• Mortgage Assistance Link (currently closed but tentatively will reopen in October) —
discover.pbcgov.org/HES/Pages/PBC-CARES-Mortgage-Assistance-Program.aspx

• Rental and Utilities and Food Assistance Link —

And the one for affected business owners:
Business Restart Application (currently closed but Phase II possible): This link helps to demonstrate documents needed to apply —
discover.pbcgov.org/HES/Pages/PBC-Cares-Business.aspx.