New Orleans has won a $5 million grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to boost job creation and new businesses in water management and other environmental sectors, Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced on Thursday.

Cantrell said that the proposal had been submitted by a consortium of city agencies before the coronavirus struck, and the award of the grant is timely as the city copes with the economic impact of the pandemic.

“This is one of the things we were working on pre-COVID and they are just paying off dividends now,” she said. “And there is no time like now when more than 40,000 of our people are unemployed and over 5,000 are getting unemployment insurance and over 4,000 are being denied it every week.”

The grant comes out of a philanthropic program set up by JPMorgan in 2018 called “Advancing Cities”, which aims to award $500 million over five years to projects that meet “inclusive growth” criteria, such as revitalizing neighborhoods, creating jobs in key areas and promoting small businesses.