President Joseph Biden made a disaster declaration for the State of New Mexico in response to the wildfires and straight-line winds that began April 5, 2022. This makes FEMA and Small Business Administration (SBA) assistance available to residents of New Mexico.

SBA offers low-interest, long-term loans to businesses of all sizes, private non-profit organizations, homeowners, and renters who need help to recover from the wildfires and straight-line winds. We loan up to $200,000 to homeowners to make repairs to their primary residences and up to $40,000 to help homeowners and renters replace their personal property in Colfax, Lincoln, Mora, San Miguel, and Valencia counties. The application deadline for physical damage assistance is July 5, 2022.

SBA offers up to $2 million to businesses and private non-profits for both physical and economic injury to businesses to help them recover from the wildfires and straight-line winds. A business may not have had physical damage but suffered economic losses in the days after the event. For this reason, we offer Economic Injury Disaster Loans in the declared counties and in the neighboring New Mexico counties of Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, De Baca, Guadalupe, Harding, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, and Union; and the Colorado counties of Costilla and Las Animas. The application deadline for EIDLs for this event is Feb. 6, 2023.

Applicants may apply online at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov. Those who have questions should contact our Customer Service Center at FOCWAssistance@sba.gov or by phone at (800) 659-2955, Mondays through Sundays from 9 am to 9 pm central time.