{"id":116605,"date":"2025-08-03T21:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T21:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116605\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T21:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T21:55:10","slug":"following-fire-cooper-residents-eligible-for-federal-disaster-loans-heres-how-to-apply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116605\/","title":{"rendered":"Following fire, Cooper residents eligible for federal disaster loans. Here\u2019s how to apply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tenants displaced by <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/07\/13\/fort-worth-firefighters-city-learning-lessons-from-six-alarm-cooper-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this summer\u2019s fire<\/a> at The Cooper can apply for low-interest loans from the\u00a0U.S. Small Business Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, some residents say they are reluctant to submit applications.<\/p>\n<p>Applications for the disaster-related <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/07\/21\/sba-offers-relief-to-small-businesses-renters-affected-by-cooper-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">loans<\/a> of up to $100,000 are open to residents of The Cooper whose personal property was damaged by the historic six-alarm fire that displaced more than 800 people on June 23.<\/p>\n<p>SBA spokesperson Africa Rosas urged renters to consider the loans as an alternative to credit card debt. The loan payments are deferred for 12 months with interest rates as low as 2.813%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome renters may feel that the only way to recover their belongings is through credit card debt that has high interest,\u201d she said. \u201cBut with these loans, they can get the money and forget about it for a whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some former tenants impacted by the fire told the Fort Worth Report they hadn\u2019t applied for a loan and weren\u2019t planning to because it\u2019s \u201cjust not worth it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t want to pay for something you already paid, then have to pay interest on top of it,\u201d Layana George said. \u201cIt would be nice if there is some type of compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Multiple former tenants shared complaints about the loan process, including a denial because of credit history and unfiled taxes, in a private Facebook group for those impacted by the fire.<\/p>\n<p>Rosas said the SBA doesn\u2019t automatically reject applications because of low credit scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is to give a loan to somebody that cannot repay and put them in a worse situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Some may qualify for other SBA loans if the fire impacted their businesses. Such a loan has a starting interest rate of 3.6255%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps there are some residents that had a business that they were operating from their apartment. If that\u2019s the case, they can be eligible for up to $2 million for working capital,\u201d Rosas said.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper residents have until Sept. 15 to apply for physical damage loans and April 17 for the business-related economic injury loans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Residents can apply online at <a href=\"http:\/\/sba.gov\/disaster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sba.gov\/disaster<\/a> or visit the Disaster Loan Outreach Center at 1100 Hemphill St.<\/p>\n<p>Isaiah Rodriguez is a reporting intern for the Fort Worth Report. He is part of the University of North Texas Scripps Howard Fund Emerging Journalists Program. Contact him at <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/08\/03\/following-fire-cooper-residents-eligible-for-federal-disaster-loans-heres-how-to-apply\/mailto:isaiah.rodriguez@fortworthreport.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">isaiah.rodriguez@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/about\/fort-worth-report-editorial-independence-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>Fort Worth Report is <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2024\/08\/25\/fort-worth-report-achieves-global-trust-certification-heres-what-it-means-for-our-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Republish This Story<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"88\" height=\"31\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" style=\"border-width:0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750614464_36_cc-by-nd-4.0.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tenants displaced by this summer\u2019s fire at The Cooper can apply for low-interest loans from the\u00a0U.S. Small Business&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,5025,7371,7372,7375,358,20234,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-116605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fire","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-tarrant-county","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-the-cooper","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114967066975606690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}