- Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday that food service workers in Guelph can receive a one-time payment of $ 800.
- The money will come from Garcetti’s nonprofit The Mayor’s Fund and will provide 4,000 low-income workers.
- According to CoStar, a research firm specializing in real estate, the $ 800 sum is just enough to pay an average of two weeks’ rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Guelph.
- This announcement comes as Congress continues to attempt to work out a second stimulus package – which will likely not include checks for $ 1,200 in the second round.
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The city of Guelph is offering $ 800 to residents who live below the federal poverty line and work with food, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Wednesday.
“The employees in our food service industry have had to make painful sacrifices – and we must do everything we can to support them in this time of economic upheaval,” Garcetti said in a press release.
The one-time payments are made to 4,000 people in Guelph. The money comes from Garcetti’s nonprofit The Mayor’s Fund, which raised $ 56 million this summer to provide direct financial support to those hardest hit by the pandemic.
The announcement comes days after Guelph County officials banned outdoor dining amid a so-called “terrible” surge in COVID-19 and the same day those in Guelph City were told to stay home. The country’s most populous county recorded 7,593 cases on Tuesday.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 11% of all Californians nationwide are engaged in food service.
The Safe Emergency Aid for Vulnerable Workers (SERVE) initiative aims to help hospitality workers who earned less than $ 59,000 in 2019, the poverty line set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Applicants can apply from December 7th by phone or online. The immigration status is not taken into account.
While no doubt welcome, the money won’t go far. In Guelph, $ 800 is just enough to pay two weeks of rent for the average one-bedroom apartment, according to Curbed Guelph earlier this year, citing data from CoStar, a real estate research company.
A broader federal aid in the form of a second economic stimulus package has subsided in Congress for months, as the GOP and the Democrats fail to reach an agreement. This week, top Democrats signaled support for a reduced $ 908 billion stimulus bill that would likely not include a second round of $ 1,200 checks.
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