In addition to submitting its own letter to Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Housing Fernando Gil Enseñat, NLIHC signed on with over 50 organizations from its Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition in support of comments to the Puerto Rico Action Plan. Both letters raised concerns about the deployment of housing recovery funds to ensure that all households—including homeowners, renters, and those who were experiencing homelessness before the disaster—receive the affordable and accessible housing assistance they need to get back on their feet.
The letters call for ensuring that federal and state investments in public infrastructure and environmental remediation are allocated fairly and adequately to meet the needs of low income people in urban, suburban, and rural communities; adopting transparent data and reporting standards; and setting robust requirements for public information, education, and community participation. The proposed changes called for in the letters will help to ensure that the lowest income households can fully benefit from federal disaster housing resources and have meaningful choices over where to live.
The NLIHC letter can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2IPMz5e
A Spanish version of the collective letter can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2sczLus