Technical Issues Shut Down Online LA Dining Grant Portal

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Online technical issues have prevented restaurant owners from applying for grant money to offset costs and revenues lost during the pandemic.

The L.A. County Development Authority tweetedshut Friday morning that the application portal is temporarily unavailable.

The program allows restaurants to apply for grants up to $30,000 to assist with employee payroll, capital to continue operations, payment of outstanding business expenses and adaptive business practices needed to remain open.

It excludes those in the City of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Pop-up locations and food trucks do not qualify for the relief funds.

A total of roughly $5.6 million is available, to be split among the county's five districts.

Eligible L.A. County restaurants must have less than 25 employees and no more than five locations total. Preference will be given to restaurants that provided outdoor dining as of Nov. 24, according to the county.

The county recently cut off in-person dining due to a surge in COVID cases.

The application deadline was initially Sunday but will be extended due to the glitch. An announcement is set for Saturday, December 5 with an updated application deadline.

Once the portal is up and running, the LACDA said it will put notifications up on social media. You can find them on Twitter here.