The federal government announced plans today to help build and rehabilitate 752 housing units in Puerto Rico.
U.S. Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department Julián Castro announced help for the projects in press conference with Gov. Alejandro García Padilla in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Staff for the governor has said the department will provide $166 million for three public housing projects. A spokesman for Castro said it will provide $200 million for the public housing projects and four affordable private-sector projects.
While Congress debated plans to help the territory deal with its $70 billion debt crisis, President Obama has been sending Cabinet secretaries to Puerto Rico this year to announce measures to help to boost the economy. Prior to Castro, Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell visited.
In this case, the federal government plans to use funding from the HOME Investment Partnership Program, project-based vouchers, and low income housing tax credits, according to a HUD spokesman.
Castro said the aid was the start of a 10 year effort to build or rehabilitate 10,000 units of housing in Puerto Rico.
Work will be done to create a 140 apartment Las Gladiolas housing project in San Juan. An earlier Las Gladiolas public housing project was torn down on July 25, 2011. Former tenants will get priority in moving into the new project, the governor said.
The federal government will also create a new community of 174 apartment units at Puerta de Tierra, also in San Juan.
It will construct a mixed-income housing project at the José Gautier Benitez public housing complex in Caguas.
The projects will have a lower density than the original projects, which will make them more livable and will reduce segregation of the poor and discouragement of work, according to the governor's press staff.
The projects will increase affordable housing, put people to work in construction and rehabilitation, and spur economic development, a HUD spokesman said.
Also on Wednesday García Padilla thanked Castro for extending until 2021 a Voluntary Compliance Agreement between his agency and the Public Housing Administration of Puerto Rico. "This extension gives Puerto Rico relief in times of economic hardship," García Padilla said.
