Velázquez Leads 12 Members in Calling for Housing Data Parity for Puerto Rico

Washington D.C.— Today, Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) led 12 members in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urging the agency to include Puerto Rico in the American Housing Survey (AHS) to help address the ongoing housing crisis on the island.
 
For decades, the Government of Puerto Rico and federal authorities have relied on outdated, limited, and poor-quality data sources to make policy decisions affecting the lives of the 3.2 million U.S. citizens living in the territory. This is a direct result of Puerto Rico’s exclusion from many of the nation’s data collection instruments, including the AHS.
 
“Unfortunately, the available data on the variety of factors that have triggered the housing crisis in Puerto Rico remains limited and fragmented,” wrote the lawmakers. “Further, it is extremely difficult to conduct a comprehensive historical analysis or compare the housing situation in Puerto Rico with other States without appropriate benchmarks. In particular, the absence of exhaustive, uniform, and consistent data sets on the housing inventory in Puerto Rico creates a significant obstacle for local and federal policymakers managing the crisis.”
 
The AHS constitutes the most comprehensive analysis of housing inventory across the United States. Conducted on a biannual basis, the AHS provides information on the size, composition, cost, and quality of the nation’s housing stock. Planners, policy makers, community stakeholders, and Members of Congress use the result of the survey to assess the housing needs of the country and the communities they serve.
 
The lack of high-quality data has hampered policymaker’s efforts to understand and address the housing challenges facing residents of Puerto Rico, including:
 

• 45 to 55 percent of Puerto Rico’s housing inventory has been developed or maintained through informal construction, resulting in thousands of decaying and unsafe structures.
• An overwhelmed public housing system, with over 30,000 pending requests for units across the island.
• Rising costs for individuals and families seeking to rent or own a home. From 2016 to 2022, the median gross rent went up by 15 percent, and from 2018 to 2021, the single-family home price rate increased by 22 percent.
• Limited availability of housing units for working class families due to a high demand for residential units by tax evaders moving to the island.

 
In addition to Rep. Velázquez, this letter was signed by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Crissy Houlahan (D-PA), Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-CA), Darren Soto (D-FL), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Grace Meng (D-NY), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY).
 
“The lack of detailed and credible figures, produced through special surveys like the AHS, has limited the ability of federal and local entities to make precise assessments of housing needs and damages, especially following the string of disasters that the island has endured since 2017. Puerto Rico’s socioeconomic landscape is markedly different than that of the states of the Union—with higher poverty figures, lower incomes, and the prevalence of various informal housing arrangements, amongst other differences—which underscores the need for detailed and robust data gathering tools that can help inform housing and community development policies and program designs,” – Deepak Lamba-Nieves, Research Director, Center for a New Economy.

“We wholeheartedly support and join the efforts of our federal representatives who are calling on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to include Puerto Rico in its American Housing Survey. The American Housing Survey and the Building Permits Survey exclude Puerto Rico as a surveyed jurisdiction. In fact, Puerto Rico or its metropolitan areas are excluded from more than 30 surveys conducted by U.S. government on behalf of different federal agencies. Lack of data collection in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories hinders the production of sound research about the living conditions of these U.S. citizens, and the ability of federal policymakers to make informed decisions about these territories. Including Puerto Rico as a surveyed jurisdiction makes sense administratively and from a sound public policy perspective," —Dr. Yomaira Figueroa, Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO). 

Read the full letter here.
 

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