Disaster Aid Centers Will Open by End of the Week : Recovery: The one-stop offices will be in neighborhoods hit by riots. SBA is taking the lead in offering loans.

One-stop disaster assistance centers will open in riot-ravaged areas of Los Angeles by the end of this week and victims may begin to apply for low-interest loans at that time, according to federal, state and local emergency officials meeting on Sunday.

“We are looking at opening multiple centers throughout the impacted area,” said Paul Flores, deputy director of the state Office of Emergency Services in Pasadena. Flores said information about the centers will be made available via a toll-free 800 number scheduled to be announced today.

Representatives from a variety of local, state and federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, will be assigned to each center to help residents file forms and applications for disaster relief.

From 6,000 to 10,000 small businesses in the Los Angeles area were devastated during last week’s civil unrest, officials said. Landlords, tenants and employees took the brunt of the damage.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is taking the lead in reaching out to business owners affected by the damage.

“We’ll bring in people from all over the country to help if we need them,” said Bernard Kulik, assistant SBA administrator for disaster assistance.

Kulik said the SBA offers three types of low-interest loans:

* Home disaster loans of up to $100,000 to homeowners or renters who need to repair or replace damaged homes.

* Business physical disaster loans of up to $500,000 to replace disaster-damaged property, including inventory and supplies.

* Economic injury disaster loans, which provide working capital to help small businesses stay open through the recovery period. These loans can also be up to $500,000.

In each case, applicants must demonstrate an ability to repay the loans and provide some kind of collateral for home and business physical disaster loans in excess of $10,000, and economic injury disaster loans in excess of $5,000, Kulik said.

Interest rates for the loans range from 4% to 8%, depending on whether the applicant has access to credit elsewhere. Applicants have 60 days to apply for the loans with the clock starting last Friday, when President Bush declared Los Angeles a federal disaster area.

Since Oct. 1, the SBA has authorized about $300 million in disaster loans to small businesses around the country. Kulik, who was on his way to Humboldt County to survey earthquake damage when he was redeployed to Los Angeles, said there is no set limit in disaster loans. He said the SBA is willing to ask Congress for additional funding if necessary.

About a dozen emergency officials met all day Sunday in the Federal Emergency Management Administration office in Pasadena, which was set up to handle February’s massive floods. The office was winding down and about to close when the fires and looting began last week.