City puts $1 million behind small businesses, with priority for Section 14 survivors
The five-year BizUp agreement with Caravanserai reserves 75 percent of the money for $3,750 microgrants. Outreach prioritizes survivors and descendants of Section 14.
PALM SPRINGS: The city council voted unanimously to allocate $1 million to Caravanserai Alliance for Entrepreneurs to run its BizUp small-business support program over five years, with 75 percent of the funding designated for microgrants to local businesses and 25 percent for program administration.
The grants are $3,750 each, and the program aims to reach 40 to 50 businesses a year. It is open citywide, but outreach prioritizes former Section 14 residents and their descendants. The $5.9 million Section 14 settlement was fulfilled in October 2025, and the city describes BizUp as part of its broader restorative justice package.
Caravanserai, the program operator, works with small businesses on training, technical assistance and access to capital. The microgrants are aimed at the smallest businesses, the kind that often cannot access traditional lending.
Seventy-five percent of the $1 million is designated for microgrants.
The program pairs grants with business coaching alongside the checks, part of a model that treats money and mentorship as a package.
Why microgrants
Small grants can be the difference between a business opening and a business plan dying in a drawer. For entrepreneurs without collateral or credit history, a few thousand dollars can cover a business license, initial inventory or a security deposit on a commercial space.
The Section 14 priority gives the program a restorative dimension. In the 1950s and 1960s, the city razed the Section 14 neighborhood, displacing predominantly Black and Latino families. The $5.9 million settlement with former residents and their families addressed part of that history; economic development aimed at survivors and descendants addresses another part. A microgrant cannot undo a displacement, but it can fund the businesses of the families who lived through it.
The five-year structure gives the program time to build relationships and measure results, rather than spending the money in a single burst. The city will be watching whether the grants reach the intended recipients, particularly in the Section 14 community.
The program is also a bet on the valley's small-business economy. Palm Springs runs on independent shops, restaurants and service businesses far more than on chains, and a million dollars over five years, targeted well, can keep promising businesses alive through their fragile early years.
Business owners interested in the program can find details through the city's economic development office. The Post will follow the program's rollout and report on where the first microgrants land, and whether the Section 14 outreach reaches the families it is meant to serve.
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