The SBA offers low-interest and deferred disaster loans to Kerr County businesses.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — More resources and help are available to small businesses in Kerr County weeks after the catastrophic floods tore through the Hill Country area.
On Thursday the Small Business Administration held a round table discussion with local leaders and businesses in Ingram.
There are two main centers, one in Kerrville and one in Hunt, which will give anyone access to the SBA and its low-interest and deferred disaster loans.
These loans are aimed at helping businesses, the SBA says, are the lifeblood of the Hill Country, like Guad and Company – a small business painted with hope.
Amid the devastating Texas floods, Lee Nelson’s Guad and Company was stripped of what she’d built.
“It was kind of born from my own grief, and I’d opened a shop to channel that,” Nelson said.
She and around three thousand other businesses in the Kerr County area will need help rebuilding. To help with the rebuild process, the SBA will be providing loans of 4% or lower to any business owner affected.
“The actual time to put money in their pocket could be up to two weeks,” Deputy Administrator for the SBA, Bill Briggs, said.
Briggs says the money doesn’t have to be paid back and will not accrue interest for the twelve months after the first payment. And when someone sits down with one of the disaster recovery specialists, they’re given every resource that could help them rebuild.
You can find disaster specialists at the following locations:
- 1551 Hwy 39 in Hunt, TX
- 1823 North St. in Kerrville, TX.
“A 30-year loan is not a quick fix – we’re not trying to saddle people with debt they can’t immediately repay. The idea is that small businesses are an important part of the community – when an act of god happens like this, we want to get that small business up and open over the long term,” Briggs said.
The SBA says they have already dispersed half a million dollars to businesses in need.