Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Homeowners still dealing with damage to their homes or belongings destroyed by December's blizzard can get help from an unlikely source: the Small Business Administration. The SBA is offering low interest loans to those affected.
Jim Accurso tells WBEN about 100 applicants have filed for the low interest loans and notes the SBA is offering business physical damage loans to residents of Erie, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Niagara and Wyoming counties. "We are also offering to those same counties home disaster loans to homeowners and renters," he says. "The home disaster loans apply to homeowners who can get help up to $200,000 for the repair or replacement of damaged real estate and personal property, including automobiles, and then renters likewise, up to $40,000, for personal property," explains Accurso.
Accurso says the process is similar to applying for any other kind of loan. He says you'd have to have all of your necessary financial information, the tax and income information and the information related to the repair of your home with you when you apply. "It's best to have all of the forms with you, when you go in and sit with the with the customer service rep and register, they'll be able to let you know what you may need in addition to that, but you're going to sit down across from them at a computer, you're going to be able to key in all your own information," notes Accurso.
If you're approved and you accept the terms, Accurso says terms can be as long as 30 years. "The interest rates are 3.305% for businesses, 2.3% for homeowners and renters, and then we also help nonprofits at the interest rate for nonprofits would be 2.1375%," notes Accurso.
You can meet with our trained and experienced Customer Service Representative six days a week at two Disaster Loan Outreach Centers in Erie County to learn about the loan application process. These centers will be open through March 16th and are located at the:
Erie County Training & Operations Center, 3359 Broadway in Cheektowaga
Delavan Grider Community Center, 877 E. Delavan Ave., in Buffalo.
Applications can also be made online through April 28th at www.disasterloanassistance.sba.gov, and those who would like a paper application can request one by phone at 800-659-2955.
In person deadline is March 16th, and the online filing deadline is April 28th.
