logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Foreclosure Wave Looms in Puerto Rico, Adding to the Housing Crisis

Cyndi Suarez
January 26, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

January 24, 2018; ABC News

As if things couldn’t get any worse, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans who are still recovering from Hurricane Maria are starting to receive letters notifying them that the moratoriums on their home mortgage payments come to an end this month. This has caused panic across the island, as many cannot pay the three months’ worth of mortgage owed the banks.

Associated Press’s Danica Coto writes, “After the storm, foreclosures were temporarily suspended, and banks in the U.S. territory offered a moratorium on mortgages for those who qualified, as did the federal government. Moratoriums offered by the US government have been extended to March, but banks have ended theirs.”

Further, many who thought they had moratoriums are learning that they did not. Some believed the moratoriums were automatic; the lack of power or telephone service prevented many from knowing that they had to apply.

Puerto Rico faces a homelessness crisis, as many people are without habitable homes and some are still in shelters due to the storm. Legal experts expect a rise in homelessness due to foreclosures, which had already been spiking in Puerto Rico. Over the now 11-year recession, foreclosures have increased from more than 2,300 in 2008 to over 6,200 last year.

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Maria Jimenez, director of the legal services clinic at the University of Puerto Rico, says, “The three-month moratorium might have seemed generous at first, but in reality, it’s not. There are still people without power, so the ability to generate revenue is not there.”

Coto writes,

More than 30,000 jobs were lost after Hurricane Maria, and some 30 percent of small- and medium-size businesses remain closed more than four months after the storm, according to the island’s Treasury Department. Meanwhile, more than 30 percent of power customers remain in the dark and many struggle to pay rising utility bills.

Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions is investigating how the moratoriums were awarded.

Jose Teruel, first vice president of the consumer credit services division at Banco Popular, Puerto Rico’s largest bank, says, “Those clients that truly are not responding to the bank’s letters are those who really will be at risk of facing a foreclosure.” But, as anyone who has lived near someone who has gone through traumatic circumstances can attest, Jimenez concludes, “A lot of times these people just freeze. There are many who don’t even open the [bank] letters because they have no way to solve the situation.”—Cyndi Suarez

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cyndi Suarez

Cyndi Suarez is the Nonprofit Quarterly’s president and editor in chief. She is author of The Power Manual: How to Master Complex Power Dynamics, in which she outlines a new theory and practice of power. Suarez has worked as a strategy and innovation consultant with a focus on networks and platforms for social movements. Her studies were in feminist theory and organizational development for social change.

More about: Nonprofit NewsPolicyPuerto Rico

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of Mutual Aid
Steve Dubb
We Owe You Nothing: The Movement to Cancel Student Debt Gains Ground
Rithika Ramamurthy
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Green New Deal or Stale Old Tax-Break Scam? Getting Electric Vehicle Incentives Right
Greg LeRoy
Goodbye “Race Neutrality”—The Case for Race-Conscious Economic Policy
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad
Graduate Student Workers Are in the Frontline of the Growing Labor Movement
Rithika Ramamurthy

NPQ_Summer_2022

Upcoming Webinars

July 14th, 2 pm ET

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now
Group Created with Sketch.
July 28th, 2 pm ET

Changing the Subject

Boards As Social Movement Spaces

Register Now
You might also like
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of...
Steve Dubb
We Owe You Nothing: The Movement to Cancel Student Debt...
Rithika Ramamurthy
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.