NLIHC Releases The Gap: Assessing the Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in Puerto Rico

NLIHC released The Gap: Assessing the Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in Puerto Rico on November 20. The report finds a shortage of 54,915 affordable and available homes for extremely low-income renters. As a result, 63% of Puerto Rican renters with extremely low incomes are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on rent, and they account for nearly 86% of all severely cost-burdened renters in the territory. These affordability challenges for the lowest-income renters stem from fundamental limitations of the private market and from insufficient federal housing assistance, similar to those in the mainland United States. The report, however, also examines how Puerto Rico’s housing affordability challenges are exacerbated by its territorial status, economic troubles, and recent disasters.   

Read The Gap: Assessing the Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in Puerto Rico report here. 

This report is also available in Spanish here.