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Housing Crisis in Puerto Rico 

Housing Crisis in Puerto Rico 
The housing crisis in Puerto Rico worsens with the increase of natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes that have destroyed housing around the island. According to the United States Interagency Council on homelessness, 2,451 Puerto Ricans have faced homelessness on the island since January 2021. The U.S. Department of Education reported that around 4,717 students met chronic homelessness in the 2018-19 academic year, with 439 students completely unsheltered. The Puerto Rican housing market has faced a prolonged crisis since the 2006 economic crisis that depreciated values within the market; the island lost around 45,880 households due to increased migration to the mainland. The housing crisis in Puerto Rico led to an increase in bank repossessions, leaving 45%-55% of houses abandoned according to the American Bar Association.

The Hurricane

Hurricane Maria struck the island on October 2, 2017, significantly damaging causing around 250,000 houses. It completely destroyed 70,000 of those homes. At the time, now-ousted Governor Ricardo Rossello stated that Puerto Rico would allocate around $31 billion in funds to recover most of the properties.

Many of the properties that the hurricane destroyed were illegally erected buildings that violate building codes around the ocean side. That is because some of these houses are located in flooding zones and unstable hillsides, which prevent them from being rebuilt.

Five Years Later

Five years after Hurricane Maria struck the island, the housing crisis in Puerto Rico has barely seen improvement.  Tax breaks have attracted investors from the mainland. This has spurred skyrocketing housing costs around the island.  In turn, those rising housing prices have led to unaffordable housing for Puerto Rican citizens. This has also displaced many Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans around the island are troubled by the growing gentrification around the island as they fear permanent displacement. The growing sense of unease has increased tension around the island.

A Nonprofit Against Homelessness

Nonprofit organization Casa del Peregrino helps identify and assist the homeless population in Puerto Rico while operating with the goal of improving the quality of life and health on the island. Founded in 1997 after the local university surveyed that 67% of the population in Aguadilla were homeless, the organization began to distribute used clothing, meals and personal hygiene items. In recent years, the organization has expanded its services to include rehabilitation programs with drug and alcohol specialists and an emergency shelter with 20 sleeping spaces.

As the housing crisis continues to develop, the organization struggles to expand its outreach through the 78 towns that compose the island; currently, only 15% of the clients have been able to fully rehabilitate through its rehabilitation center. The organization’s lack of government funding or support portrays an overarching problem with homelessness left to grow without any governmental measure to meet ensure citizens’ needs.

The island continues to face many challenges that increase homelessness within the population while organizations similar to Casa del Peregrino stand to provide the necessary resources for the island’s citizens until they await a solution from the government.

– Nuria Munoz
Photo: Flickr

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Earthquakes and Homelessness in Puerto Rico

How an Earthquake affected Homelessness in Puerto Rico
An earthquake registering at a 6.4 magnitude struck Puerto Rico on January 7, 2020. Consequently, families are still reeling from its destruction and records state that it was the strongest earthquake in a century. The aftermath of the earthquake has been unbelievable, causing the homelessness in Puerto Rico to spike. Currently, almost 5,000 residents had to move to homeless shelters. Also, there was at least $110 million worth of damage. In addition to the damage, a mass power outage occurred as a result of the earthquake. Reports indicated that nearly all of Puerto Rico did not have access to power.

The Aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake

The last earthquake to register as strong as this one happened in October 1918. That earthquake registered at a magnitude of 7.3 and it took the lives of 116 people.

The latest earthquake has caused havoc throughout Puerto Rico. The aftermath led to 950 earthquakes and aftershocks throughout the area. This has caused even more issues for those who were already going through hardships. Moreover, these aftershocks caused people to evacuate from their homes and seek new places of shelter. Over 200 people took shelter in a nearby gym after an earthquake on Monday, January 6, 2020. However, the 6.4 magnitude earthquake damaged that building and the citizens had to evacuate again.

Homelessness in Puerto Rico After the Hurricanes

The aftermath of Hurricane Maria in September 2017 placed 10,000 people in shelters all across Puerto Rico. The island is still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, as thousands are still homeless and struggling as a result of it. The total damage after Hurricane Maria was around $100 billion.

After the earthquake in early 2020, 5,000 residents remained in homeless shelters even after Puerto Rico restored power. In addition, there are still others who choose to sleep outside of their homes, in order to avoid the damage from aftershocks.

Tourism

The country is planning to use tourism to get the economy back on track and reduce the alarming rate of homelessness in Puerto Rico. Ricardo Rossello and his administration are attempting to encourage visitors to continue to visit the island. They want visitors to continue to show their support for the Island as tourism is vital to recovering the economy.

IsraAID

IsraAID came to the rescue to provide aid for those homeless due to the damage of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Puerto Rico in early 2020. This organization has been assisting and helping around Puerto Rico since the devastation that Hurricane Maria caused in 2017. Some teams have been in Puerto Rico since the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

In early 2020, IsraAID initially went to the heart of the damage that the 6.4 magnitude earthquake caused to evaluate and determine what its first steps of assistance should be. It determined where teams should go to provide first aid, clean water, sanitation and psychological assistance.

In the case of Hurricane Maria, IsraAID and other volunteers provided food and water to over 6,000 citizens in six different communities throughout Puerto Rico. The organization set up its own mobile clinics and assisted hundreds of citizens in the poorest areas throughout Puerto Rico. Since this was one of the most catastrophic storms in history, there were a lot of mental health issues related to this event. IsraAID provided mental health treatments and psychological support and assistance to citizens.

Initially, IsraAID set out to assist and help in any way that it could. Since then, its efforts have extended into maintaining resiliency against natural disasters. The organization started working on two projects after Hurricane Maria to ensure and create resilience, working with nearby schools and creating a clean water filtration system in the remote community of El Real.

The current 6.4 magnitude earthquake caused chaos adding up to $110 million worth of damage along with increasing homelessness to 5,000 residents. Tourism could help the economy of Puerto Rico recover while Israeli nonprofit organization IsraAID has been of huge assistance to the residents of Puerto Rico. With continued support, Puerto Rico should be able to reduce its homelessness and improve its economy in the aftermath of its most recent devastating earthquakes.

– Jamal Patterson
Photo: Flickr

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Corruption in the Puerto Rican Government

Corruption in the Puerto Rican Government
On July 10, 2019, Puerto Ricans had proof that their government was as corrupt as they suspected. The Center of Investigative Journalism leaked a chat from the Telegram app between the governor, Ricardo Rossello, and some of his past and current members of staff. With hundreds of pages as evidence, the people of Puerto Rico found the group making vulgar, racist and homophobic comments towards several people. Although some say the corruption has been years in the making, it was the leaked 889 pages of content that took down the Rossello administration. Most of all, the corruption scheme that led to millions of dollars of the public’s funds going to the administration’s personal bank accounts became known, showing the corruption in the Puerto Rican government.

The Situation

The conversations between Elias Sanchez, Edwin Miranda and Carlos Bermudez in the chat reveal that a multimillionaire network of corruption had taken place. On paper, they operated as private citizens and contractors, but in reality, they hold more power than any of the secretaries in the constitutional government, according to the Center of Investigative Journalism.

Along with different companies and institutions, they managed to keep the country in poverty. One example is Unidos Por Puerto Rico, an organization that Rossello’s administration created. It seeks to find hurricane relief aid after the past natural disasters. The organization obtained $14 million in aid but no one really knows how the organization spent that money. Whenever someone made a donation, they would get a receipt from a company that Edwin Miranda, one of the men behind the corruption, owns.

After two hurricanes, there was a recession economically. A lot of companies, local businesses and schools closed down due to lack of funds and supplies. Puerto Ricans had to turn their attention to their own survival. Despite the people’s endurance, several compartments full of supplies sat untouched and covered in rat excrement, according to Radio Isla. Among the reported expired supplies were water, medicines, baby food and others. Although Rossello’s administration did not confirm it, locals believe that La Fortaleza, the governor’s mansion, held compartments for themselves. One of the main causes for the sudden death toll was because of the lack of supplies and aid the people of Puerto Rico received.

The Aftermath of Hurricane Maria

In early December 2017, a few months after Hurricane Maria, the government’s official death count was 64 people. The chat leak revealed that they were manipulating the media with a very low death count, another fact that shows the corruption in the Puerto Rican government. However, eventually, independent researchers started to question the official death count. The New England Journal of Medicine estimated 4,645 excess deaths following the natural disaster, but it could not confirm this because of the lack of forensic scientists. To this day, there are cadavers still in forensics because the government has not been able to get the resources to properly examine them.

The Puerto Rican Protests

Through the reveal of all the injustice, the people of Puerto Rico have protested, and after almost four weeks, their efforts produced results. On August 2, 2019, Ricardo Rossello resigned his post as governor and the other members of the chat have either resigned their post in government or taken some time off. The Secretary of Justice, Wanda Vazquez, has since become the governor. The people of Puerto Rico cheered to their victory with a new hope of ending the corruption in the Puerto Rican government and to reduce the poverty.

– Andrea Viera
Photo: Flickr