After severe storms and flooding began in Vermont on July 7, 2023, the Small Business Administration made federal disaster loans available under a presidential declaration. The SBA release, published July 17, identified six Vermont counties eligible for both physical-damage and economic-injury loans, with seven additional Vermont counties and specified neighboring counties in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York eligible for economic-injury loans. [story-s1]
The program separated property repair from working-capital support. Businesses and private nonprofits could seek up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged business property; eligible small businesses, agricultural cooperatives, aquaculture businesses and most private nonprofits could seek Economic Injury Disaster Loans for working capital even without physical property damage. Homeowners could apply for up to $200,000 for real estate repairs, while homeowners and renters could seek up to $40,000 for personal property. The release listed rates as low as 4% for businesses, 2.375% for nonprofits and 2.5% for homeowners and renters, with terms up to 30 years; the SBA said final amounts and terms depended on each applicant’s financial condition. [story-s1]
Applicants with physical damage had until September 12, 2023, to file, while the economic-injury deadline was April 15, 2024. The release also said applicants could request a loan increase of up to 20% of SBA-verified physical damages for eligible mitigation work. It announced two recovery centers scheduled to open July 18 and 19; this report does not treat those planned openings as independently confirmed. [story-s1]
Source documents
- SBA Offers Disaster Assistance to Businesses and Residents of Vermont Affected by Recent Severe Storms and Floodinghttps://www.sba.gov/article/2023/07/17/sba-offers-disaster-assistance-businesses-residents-vermont-affected-recent-severe-storms-flooding