Hotline set up to help small businesses with disaster relief information

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The City of Lubbock along with three groups from Texas Tech have banded together to form a expert-staffed hotline that can help answer questions on ways small businesses can get federal disaster relief.

The Hub City Small Business Triage was formed by the Texas Tech Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center, Tech’s Innovation Hub, Tech’s Jerry S. Rawls College of Business and the City of Lubbock.

The triage has set up a hotline, 1-800-992-7232, that will help members of the small business community in and around Lubbock prepare for applying for disaster relief. This hotline directs anyone with questions to experts provided by the all of the organizations that have formed the small business triage.

The relief comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act, a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 22. This law can cover the cost of keeping employees at a business through both the Paycheck Protection Program and the Small Business Debt Relief Program.

“I appreciate the students, staff, and faculty who have jumped in to assist with this collaboration," Margaret Williams, dean of the college of business, said in a news release. "We all feel the need to share our expertise to help the local business community, and students do not often have the opportunity to learn on the front lines as they will here.”

Related Link: Banking Community commits $280,000 to COVID-19 response fund for community-based organizations

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