NY Rising changes SBA rules again

New York Rising will not count unspent portions of the Small Business Loan as duplication of benefits against Hurricane Sandy victims. Jon Kaiman, the special adviser to Governor Cuomo on Hurricane Sandy, made the announcement, speaking at the Apr. 7 meeting of the Long Island Regional Planning Council at Hofstra University in Hempstead.

Before this change, if a homeowner was awarded the SBA loan, NY Rising had to count the entire amount of the loan against any additional benefits the homeowner might receive. If the homeowner was approved for the loan but chose not to take it, NY Rising had to do a hardship assessment to determine why the monies were turned down, for example an inability to repay because of lack of income, illness or some other hardship. With this change Kaiman said they no longer have to go through the hardship analysis.

He credited Cuomo and other officials with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for the change. Kaiman said about 1900 people would be affected.

In Nassau County 11,000 applications have received NY Rising funds, he said, and $448 million has been given out since Sandy, while 92 substantially damaged properties have been acquired by the state.

Homes that were substantially damaged but not demolished need to be made Federal Emergency Management Agency compliant. Homeowners have three more years to do so. As the law stands now, those that are not made compliant will be torn down. Kaiman said the question is who will oversee that process.

There has been concern about a new requirement that NY Rising only pay for 20 percent of the enclosure of the bottom of a house, meaning most structures would be standing on pilings with only one wall. Municipalities have been trying to get this changed, but Kaman said HUD is saying this requirement will stand.

The executive director of the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, Jamie Rubin, was scheduled to appear at the meeting as well, but Kaiman said Rubin was in Manhattan attending another meeting.