ORLANDO, Fla. — Monday, the Orlando city council approved a program that will cut checks to businesses that are struggling to stay open, due to the pandemic.


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It’s called the CRA Small Business Rental Assistance program, and for businesses that meet the requirements, it could mean up to $30,000 worth of help.

The program would provide up to $5,000 a month for up to 6 months.

We spoke to the owner of Eola General, Matt Uva. He said their small business meets the qualifications, and he will not hesitate to apply.

Uva and his staff like to call Eola General one of downtown Orlando’s best kept secrets, but they say it’s no secret they’ve been struggling financially.

“You know it’s not like it used to be,” Uva said. “We used to have a line out the door on a Saturday or Sunday. But now you can’t, because you just can’t be that close to other folks.

Of course, this story is one of many downtown.

That’s when Mayor Buddy Dyer and the council got to thinking.

“We’ve been looking both at city-wide but specifically in the CRA, how we can help some of our struggling businesses,” said Dyer. “Rental assistance was something we felt we could do with the CRA funding.”

Thus the CRA Small Business Rental Assistance Program was given the stamp of approval.

Uva says for his small business, this is huge.

“To finally have something that would allow us to … that would be a great weight off of our shoulders,” said Uva. “We’ve had to cut a lot of corners.”


Business elligible to apply for the program have to be within the green outline