Mountain View passes $800,000 Covid-19 relief package

Ten days after passing a $500,000 rent relief package, the Mountain View City Council passed another $800,000 relief package Friday night to help local small businesses, local homeless and people with unstable living situations, local seniors and residents struggling with garbage or water bills.

These relief efforts, known as TogetherMV, will be combined with a local donation portal set to launch early next week. In addition, Mountain View joined other cities in the region to pass an urgency ordinance to suspend evictions for nonpayment of rent due to Covid-19-caused hardship for residential renters, including mobile home lot renters, for 120 days after the May 31 expiration date of the ordinance.

Included in the $800,000 package approved at a special video meeting Friday night are:

• $400,000 for small-business relief with an additional $100,000 earmarked to loan to small apartment complex owners with nine or fewer units who prove Covid-19-related hardships
• $50,000 for portable restrooms, hand-washing stations, mobile showers and washer and dryers; $50,000 for a grocery gift-card program for local homeless, unstably housed and seniors in need
• $100,000 for expansion of the Safe Parking Program pilot to run 24/7 at Shoreline, Terra Bella and Evelyn lots during this crisis
• $100,000 to design and implement a program to help with hardships in paying garbage and water utility bills due to Covid-19 impacts