USRC Commits to Helping Small Businesses Become More Resilient

Small Businesses produce 44% of America’s Gross Domestic Product.

Small Businesses employ 48% of America’s workforce.

40 percent of small businesses do not reopen following a disaster. Another 25 percent fail within one year.

The USRC educates small businesses about how to make their buildings more resilient to natural disasters.

SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESSES!

USRC secures $250 million to help CA small businesses retrofit vulnerable apartment buildings.

USRC SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVES

Evan Reis joins SBA Administrator to cement education partnership

View full press conference here

E-READS

USRC and US SBA Partner to Promote Small Businesses Resilience

View the USRC press release on this important event

Small Business Owners of Seismically Vulnerable Apartments Receive Needed Grant Funding

  • Soft story apartment buildings have open front parking under one or more stories above

  • Soft story buildings are extremely vulnerable to collapse in earthquakes

  • Dozens of people died in the collapse of soft story apartments in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake

  • There may be as many as 100,000 soft story apartment buildings in California, housing up to 2.5 million residents

  • Many apartments are owned by mom and pop small businesses or house our small business workforce

  • Making our apartments more resilient benefits a diverse array of stakeholders

  • The good news is that soft story buildings are relatively simple to retrofit

  • USRC sponsored bill AB1721 will make hundreds of thousands of Californians safer, and protect small business owners

  • The USRC assembled an unprecedented group of organizations to support AB1721

US Small Business Administration Joins USRC to Promote Resilience

  • USRC Executive Director Evan Reis speaks about small business resilience

  • SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman speaks about resilience

  • USRC Executive Director Evan Reis and LA Chamber CEO Maria Salinas

  • USRC Executive Director Evan Reis speaks about small business resilience

  • SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman and LA Chamber CEO Maria Salinas

  • USRC Executive Director Evan Reis speaks about small business resilience alongside Assemblymembers Holden and Rodriguez

  • SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman and USRC Director Evan Reis sign education partnership agreement

  • LA Chamber CEO Maria Salinas speaks about the Chamber's commitment to small business resilience

  • SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman answers questions from the press

  • Assemblymembers Holden and Rodriguez speak with LA City EMD General Manager Carol Parks

  • LA Chamber CEO Maria Salinas speaks with Assemblymembers Holden and Rodriguez

  • USRC's Evan Reis with SBA Administrator Guzman, LA Chamber CEO Salinas, and Assemblymembers Holden and Rodriguez