Efforts Post Harvey Exceed $12 Billion But Black Businesses Still Rebounding

Style Magazine Newswire | 2/16/2018, 1:49 p.m.
It has been six months since Hurricane Harvey hit and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of Houston-area residents. …

Source: BlackEnterprise.com

It has been six months since Hurricane Harvey hit and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of Houston-area residents. But new information shows that survivors—including African American families—have received more than $12 billion to help them recover from the catastrophic storm in August. State and federal disaster assistance consists of aid from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants, United States Small Business Administration (SBA) low-interest disaster loans, and National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) flood-insurance payments as of Jan. 9, 2018, says Buddy Howard, a spokesman for FEMA in Austin, Texas. The funding includes $1.5 billion from the Individuals and Households Program (IHP), $1.15 billion for Housing Assistance (HA), and $364 million from Other Needs Assistance (ONA)—all FEMA programs. A total of $3.03 billion in SBA loans were approved, including $2.72 billion for homeowners and $304 million for businesses, Howard says. But black businesses need more help.

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