Creative ways of dealing with the pandemic in terms of financial stability are happening all around the world.  New York is no different.  Here we take a look at two cases.

In March of this year, florist Giovy Buyers had to let three of her works go as she closed the store.  Before closing however, she decided to take all of her remaining flowers to retirement homes.  She still thought she could maintain the business on some level though with funeral floral arrangements.  The problem was, her supply chain broke as she was not able to import flowers due to coronavirus.

So she found new suppliers, connected with local farmers markets and the City of Charlotte stepped in, offering small businesses grants.  She was given $10,000 in July from this initiative. To date, $20 million has been put toward such cases by the City of Charlotte in the “thrive” economic phrase.

In addition, Charlotte city established a workforce training program focusing on technology and renewable energy jobs, while giving out grants for companies to hire people who were let go for coronavirus-reasons.

Another creative way of helping people survive is the increase in no-fee rental listings in New York City.  In August between 75 to 85 percent of all Manhattan and Brooklyn rental lists eschewed brokers fees.  While these fees were decreasing anyway (due to the legislation passed last year which shifted the fees from renter to landlord in many cases), the law was still being challenged in court and it wasn’t as widespread as it is now.

With so many more rental properties available on the market, landlords are being forced to address the issue of high rents and high fees and respond accordingly which it seems they are doing.