St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter on Tuesday announced an expansion of the proposed St. Paul Bridge Fund to $3.85 million if adopted later this week.

Proposed by Carter last week, the fund is designed to help low-income families and small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. The St. Paul Bridge Fund was pitched as $3.25 million investment to be funded through St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority funds.

That total has increased thanks to the support of of philanthropic and corporate supporters, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Ecolab Foundation, the Securian Foundation, Minnesota United FC, the Minnesota Wild, the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, and Xcel Energy.

“I deeply appreciate these partners who have jumped forward to provide emergency aid to families and local businesses,” Carter said in a prepared statement. “Their generosity demonstrates the spirit of unity we’ll need to survive and rebuild from this crisis together.”

Since its presentation to the St. Paul City Council last week, Carter has made a couple of changes to the proposed St. Paul Bridge Fund.

All families with at least one child under 18 will be eligible to apply. Previously, a family had to have at least one student in the St. Paul public school system.

Additionally, following the passage of the stimulus package, which provides grants of $1,200 per adult for people earning $75,000 or less, as well as an increase in unemployment benefits, the St. Paul Bridge Fund will offer $1,000 grants to families, instead of $2,000 originally presented. This will complement the federal aid, and double the number of families served.

In order to be eligible, a family must have an income at or below 40 percent of the area median income, or around $40,000 for a family of four members, and have experienced a significant loss of income due to the coronavirus pandemic.