(FORTUNE Small Business) – In the weeks after Katrina and Rita, the SBA received more than 600,000 requests for disaster-relief loans. Surprisingly, the vast majority of such loans will go to homeowners, not business owners. As of Oct. 1, only 12 of the 286 loans granted were made to small companies. Are home-repair loans not the job of, say, the Department of Housing and Urban Development? Turns out that since the inception of the SBA in 1953, Congress has made it responsible for long-term disaster recovery--for everybody. "I'm not quite sure why that decision was made," says Mary Lynn Wilkerson, director of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center. Historically, about 80% of SBA disaster loans go to homeowners, 20% to businesses. Small firms are eligible for more money--as much as $1.5 million, vs. $200,000 for home repair and $40,000 for replacement of personal property--but homeowner interest rates are lower: 2.68%, vs. 4%. The SBA's only explanation is that Congress set the rates. Says SBA spokesperson Carol Chastang: "We haven't heard anyone express any type of outrage over this. Folks are pretty appreciative--everyone who runs a business has a house." Everyone who runs a business, of course, also eats breakfast. Which way to the SBA eggs-and-bacon buffet?