ARKANSAS, USA — A new law that facilitates requirements for rural communities to declare disasters and receive assistance is now in place, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman announced the Disaster Assistance for Rural Communities Act in effect on June 6, 2023. The Act was signed by Joe Biden on Dec. 20, 2022.
SBA says "Rural communities often face more severe impacts from natural disasters due to limited access to resources and infrastructure". This causes not only a harder but longer recovery for those communities.
This new law will allow rural areas to declare a disaster "where significant damage has been incurred for the purpose of providing certain assistance," according to congress.gov. To receive assistance, the damage must include "uninsured losses of not less than 40% of the fair replacement value or pre-disaster fair market value of the damaged property (whichever is less)." the website says.
Administrator Guzman says small businesses need this change.
"Small businesses are especially vital in our nation's rural communities, and we must have effective tools to rapidly help them and the neighborhoods they serve recover when disaster strikes," said Guzman.
Before this law, SBA could only claim damage to a minimum of "25 homes, businesses, or other eligible institutions". Now, the law allows SBA to claim "one damaged property in a rural area when the county has received a major disaster declaration from the President for Public Assistance." This would allow SBA to assist with "low-interest loans to individual renters and homeowners as well as nonprofit and for-profit businesses."
In the case of a disaster, SBA can now facilitate the process for governors to request disaster assistance for rural communities which originally included more complicated requirements.
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