SBA disaster loans may be made available immediately following a disaster. When applicants fill out the FEMA registration for disaster assistance from FEMA, they report their annual income. The income amount is compared to income tables referenced by the National Emergency Management Information System (NEMIS), and if the household income is greater than the income table in NEMIS, the applicant is referred to SBA. The applicant will automatically be sent an SBA packet to complete.

An applicant who is referred to SBA must fill out the packet and return it to the SBA if seeking assistance for repairing or replacing personal property items. If the application for a loan is turned down by SBA, FEMA will route the application to be considered for Other Needs Assistance (ONA) grants.

You should tell applicants they may receive a greater dollar amount of financial assistance through low-interest loans than through the award money from FEMA. In fact, some charitable groups may even refuse to provide them with financial assistance if they have not completed the SBA loan process. The applicants may be asked for SBA information upon requesting assistance from charitable groups.