Businesses here may be eligible for SBA loans

Staff Report
St. Martin and Iberia parishes are part of the federally declared disaster area because of the recent flooding. St. Mary isn’t.
But businesses here still may be eligible for Small Business Administration loans to cover economic losses resulting from the flood in the officially declared disaster area.
St. Mary is one of the parishes adjacent to the disaster-area parishes where businesses may be eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loans. These are “working capital loans to help small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most private, nonprofit organizations of all sizes meet their ordinary and necessary financial obligations that cannot be met as a direct result of the disaster,” according to information from the SBA. “These loans are intended to assist through the disaster recovery period.”
A business in St. Mary may, for example, have incurred losses because workers who live in the disaster area couldn’t get to work. Or a supplier in the disaster area may have been unable to deliver goods required to operate the business in St. Mary.
Businesses eligible for the aid must have a credit history acceptable to the SBA and must show the ability to repay all loans. The SBA says it won’t turn down a business because it doesn’t have collateral, but it does require businesses to pledge what is available as collateral on loans of more than $25,000.
The interest rate on the business loans is 4 percent. Applications for economic injury loans must be submitted by May 15, 2017.
Business applicants must register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency even if the disaster aid comes only from the SBA. Call FEMA at 800-621-FEMA. Applications for SBA loans may be submitted at Federal-State Disaster Recovery Centers. Check for locations by calling the SBA Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955.
The disaster area includes Acadia, Ascension, Avoyelles, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Vermilion, Washington and West Feliciana.
Businesses in those parishes may be eligible for Business Physical Disaster Loans, and individuals may be eligible for home disaster loans. The application deadline for physical damage loans is Oct. 13.