Disaster loan office opens

Barbara Diamond

A Small Business Administration office opened Thursday in Laguna

Beach to provide applications and information about low-interest,

disaster loans for property owners or renters whose homes or

belongings were damaged in the June 1 landslide.

Disaster loans of up to $200,000 to repair or replace damaged

homes are available. Homeowners and renters are eligible for up to

$40,000 to repair or replace personal property. Applications for

property damage must be filed by Oct. 11. Applications for economic

injury loans must be returned by May 10, 2006.

The disaster loans are made possible by the SBA declaration that

the counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Kern, Riverside, San Bernardino,

San Diego and Ventura are a disaster area due to the damage caused by

severe winter storms that occurred Feb. 12 through 24 this year.

SBA is an independent government agency separate from the Federal

Emergency Management Agency, to which the city has applied for public

and private financial assistance to help fund the slide recovery.

FEMA had not announced, as of Wednesday, its decision on whether to

link the slide to the president’s February disaster declaration,

which precludes private assistance, or to an earlier declaration in

January, which includes it.

“Our program is available in Laguna Beach, and it won’t go away,

regardless of what FEMA does or does not do,” said Ken Shuman, public

information officer for the SBA Area 4 disaster office in Sacramento.

Shuman said the SBA declaration was so long in coming because of

the state of California’s appeal of the FEMA denial of individual

assistance for damage in the February storms. The appeal process

ended Aug. 4 with no change in the FEMA position.

“Once FEMA ruled no, then SBA was able to issue its own

declaration,” Shuman said.

Administrator Hector V. Barreto has the authority to declare a

disaster area if it meets the agency’s damage threshold, according to

Shuman.

“If we find that at least 25 homes or businesses have suffered 40%

or more uninsured or uncompensated damage, that meets the SBA

criteria for a disaster declaration by the administrator,” Shuman

said. “The SBA urges everybody [who suffered damages] to go to the

center in Laguna. It will only take about 10 or 15 minutes and no

documentation will be needed for the original visit.”

The SBA office will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and

Fridays and from 9 a .m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays in the conference room

at the back of the city’s Recreation Department at 515 Forest Ave.

The office will be maintained until further notice, Shuman said.

SBA representatives will be on hand to issue loan applications,

answer questions about the agency’s disaster loan program, explain

the application process, and help individuals to complete their

application, SBA regional administrator Bruce Thompson said.

Although the slide occurred in a residential neighborhood,

businesses of any size and private nonprofit organizations damaged in

the slide would also be eligible for loans -- up to $1.5 million to

repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and

equipment, inventory and other business assets, Thompson said.

SBA can also lend additional funds to help with the cost of making

improvements that protect, prevent and minimize the same type of

disaster damage from recurring in the future.

“I encourage anyone with damages from the February storms and the

June landslide to apply for these loans as quickly as possible,”

Barreto said.

People and business owners who are unable to visit the disaster

office may obtain information and a loan application on line at

o7www.sba.gov/disasterf7 or calling the SBA toll free at (800)

659-2955. Hearing impaired people may call TTY, (800) 877-8339.

Completed applications may be mailed to U.S. Small Business

Administration, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155-2243.