Montgomery County Public Health Emergency Grant (PHEG) Program Begins Distributing Payments to Help Businesses That Have Had Significant Financial Losses During Health Crisis

Montgomery County’s Public Health Emergency Grant (PHEG) program has begun depositing initial payments into the accounts of businesses whose applications for assistance have been approved. The program is designed to help for-profit and nonprofit businesses with 100 or fewer employees that have demonstrated significant financial losses due to the current COVID-19 health crisis.

To date, PHEG has approved 352 grants totaling $3.35 million.

Grants will continue to be distributed on a daily basis as they are approved. The County now has more than 50 people reviewing grant applications and is accelerating the review process.

The $25 million PHEG initiative is a collaborative effort between County Executive Marc Elrich and the Montgomery County Council. In addition to for-profit and nonprofit businesses, the program is open to businesses with no employees, including sole proprietors and independent contractors.

The PHEG program is intended to provide financial assistance to establishments that have experienced a significant reduction in revenue as a result of the current public health emergency. The County is encouraging businesses and nonprofit organizations to review other assistance programs and apply to those for which they are eligible.

“This pandemic has wreaked havoc on the community and it has left our businesses in a position of desperate need,” said County Executive Elrich. “I realize this grant program can’t help everyone, but my hope is these grants will provide a positive impact to some of our for-profit and nonprofit businesses during these uncertain times.”

Montgomery County accepted applications for the PHEG program from April 15-25. The program received applications from a total of 6,757 businesses, with approximately 75 percent from businesses with 10 or fewer employees.

The PHEG program now has a dashboard available to the public. The dashboard will update daily the number of awards and will have a breakdown of the awards made by types of industry. The dashboard can be viewed at  https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/biz-resources/pheg/.

More information on the PHEG program is available at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Biz-Resources/pheg/. Questions about the program should be directed to BizinfoCovid19@montgomerycountymd.gov.

For the latest updates, visit the County’s COVID-19 website and follow Montgomery County on Facebook @MontgomeryCountyInfo and Twitter @MontgomeryCoMD.