Puerto Ricans’ Newest Struggle: Trying to Stay Home on an Island Without Sufficient Shelter

Yuliya Panfil and Adi Martínez-Roman wrote for The New York Daily News revealing new data that as many as 250,000 Puerto Ricans were improperly denied housing aid after Hurricane Maria because they couldn’t provide FEMA a document that wasn’t required in the first place: a title to their home.

As Puerto Ricans enter their eighth week of lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows that as many as a quarter-million of them may not have a safe home in which to shelter because they were improperly denied housing aid after Hurricane Maria.

After the hurricane damaged 92% of Puerto Rico’s homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) denied 85,000 claims for housing assistance — impacting around 250,000 Puerto Ricans — because it claimed it could not verify applicants’ homeownership, according to data received in our recent Freedom of Information Act request. Most were denied because they didn’t present FEMA with a piece of paper that wasn’t even required: the formal title to their home.

Now, almost three years after Hurricane Maria and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans continue to live under blue tarps. Countless others are boarding with family, friends and neighbors across the island and the U.S. Here in New York, thousands of displaced Puerto Ricans are weathering the pandemic in tiny apartments with extended family.

Find out what went wrong, as well as some possible solutions, here.