GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico – Survivors of hurricanes Irma and María in Puerto Rico who were referred to the U.S. Small Business Administration by FEMA have until Monday, June 18 to complete and submit SBA’s loan application for physical damage.
If insurance and funding from FEMA do not fully cover your recovery needs, SBA loans can help with repairs and replacement of damaged homes and businesses (real estate, inventories, supplies, machinery and equipment) after a disaster. Damage or losses from Hurricane Irma must have occurred Sept. 5 - 7, and from Hurricane María Sept. 17 - Nov. 15.
There is no charge to apply for the loan and if offered, no obligation to accept the loan. However, completing an SBA loan application may make FEMA assistance available to replace essential household items, replace or repair a damaged vehicle or pay for storage costs.
You do not need to own a business to apply for a disaster loan. It may be possible to increase the loan up to 20 percent of the confirmed physical losses, and use this increase to make improvements that reduce the risk of future damage, such as constructing retaining walls and storm shelters.
Home loans are limited to $200,000 for repair or replacement of homes and $40,000 to repair or replace personal property, but loans cannot exceed the verified uninsured disaster loss. Interest rates are as low as 1.75 percent for homeowners and renters, 3.305 percent for businesses of all sizes, and 2.5 percent for private nonprofit organizations. Loan terms can be up to 30 years.
As of June 12, SBA has approved 45,395 disaster loans for individuals and businesses for a total of over $1.6 billion.
Disaster loan information and application forms are available from SBA’s customer service center by calling 800-659-2955. Individuals who are deaf or hard‑of‑hearing may call TTY 800-877-8339. Survivors can also visit sba.gov/disaster or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
Survivors may apply online using the electronic loan application via SBA’s secure website at disasterloan.sba.gov/ela, or mail their applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.
For updates on Puerto Rico’s Hurricane María response and recovery, visit fema.gov/disaster/4339.
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Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status. If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, call FEMA toll-free at 800-621-FEMA (3362) 711/VRS - Video Relay Service). Multilingual operators are available. (Press 2 for Spanish). TTY call 800-462-7585.
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