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Economic development staff outline resource gap, grants and outreach to support Somerville small businesses
Summary
Deputy director of economic development described recent grants, technical-assistance programs, a new leasing handbook and plans to act as a convener for licensing and outreach; office hours and email intake available for vendors needing help with procurement steps.
Deputy Director Dana Whiteside and other economic development staff updated the Somerville City Council committee on June 30 about efforts to track and support small businesses amid changing federal and local conditions.
Whiteside said the Economic Development Division's capacity to track business-level economic data is limited and that staff rely on partners such as SomerStat for robust sales-tax analysis. She called the division's role a convener: "One of the primary areas of support that we've learned is needed is facilitating or easing the process of things like permanent licensing," Whiteside said.
Recent supports: Whiteside reviewed several recent funding and technical-assistance efforts. The division received an Urban Agenda grant of approximately $100,000 and previously used ARPA funds for two programs: a vitality grant (bricks-and-mortar support) and a business-enrichment program for technical assistance. Whiteside reported that $576,117 was awarded to 30 brick-and-mortar businesses (described as January 2024 through August in the presentation), and that the business-enrichment program distributed about $1,300,000 in technical-assistance dollars to help businesses with financing, operations, marketing and planning. The Urban Agenda grant funded workshops, one-on-one consulting and small stipends for 17 home-based child-care providers.
Non-financial supports and outreach: Staff said they produced a multilingual leasing handbook (English, Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole) in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and are building a social-media policy to guide city promotion of doing business in Somerville. Whiteside said the division intends to lean into convening partners such as the Chamber of Commerce to expand reach and promote participation in events such as Taste of Somerville.
Assistance with procurement and tax IDs: Whiteside said the division can help business owners navigate processes such as obtaining tax IDs and registering as a city vendor by connecting them to appropriate departments and by offering weekly small-business office hours; the division also monitors an economicdevelopment@somerville.gov email for inquiries.
Committee response and next steps: Council members thanked staff and asked for continued follow-up. Whiteside said the division plans to return with updates and to expand coordination with sister departments to streamline licensing and technical assistance in fiscal year 2026.
Ending: Staff asked councilors to refer businesses with questions to the division's office hours or email intake and said staff will continue to convene partners and report back to the committee.
