Iowa homeowners, business owners and renters who had damage in the severe storms and tornadoes on March 31st have until the middle of next week to apply for low-interest loans in-person through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Cynthia Cowell, spokeswoman for the SBA’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience, says the agency set up a temporary office in the Coralville Library back in April and it’ll be closing on May 17th. “We can offer up to $200,000 for homeowners to repair their primary dwelling,” Cowell says, “up to $40,000 for homeowners and renters to replace their personal property, and up to $2 million for businesses both for physical damage to their business and economic injury.”
These loans are available to businesses and residents in eight Iowa counties: Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Linn, Louisa, Muscatine and Washington. If they have access to the internet, Cowell suggests they start by visiting the website: sba.gov/disaster. “That’ll give them information about disaster loans and also provide the application,” Cowell says. “They can either download it and mail it in, or if they want to do it before we close at the Coralville Library, they can download it and bring it to us and we’ll look it over.”
Homeowners who’d like to apply for a loan in-person do -not- have to bring along receipts detailing repairs or photos showing the damage.
“We’ll ask for that in processing. Mainly what they need to do is come in and complete an application to get the whole thing started,” Cowell says. “We will require tax returns for the last three years for businesses, but if they don’t have them with them right now, I know that tornadoes have a tendency to scatter items, then we’ll work with them.”
The application deadline for physical damage assistance is June 26th. For businesses that had no physical damage but suffered economic losses after the storm, the SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The application deadline for EIDLs for this event is January 26, 2024.