The municipality of Guaynabo is a city of 92,866 people located in the San Juan, Puerto Rico, metropolitan area. It has one of the largest industrial zones in the area, and is an important Caribbean distribution center for industrial and commercial materials. There are large numbers of jobs in Guaynabo, but only about 28 percent of the laborers in the industrial and commercial centers actually live in the municipality.
The Consolidated Plan of Guaynabo covers a 5-year period from 1995 through 1999, with a 1-year Action Plan for 1995. An annual update or action plan will be prepared and publicized in each subsequent year. The plan contains a description of housing and community development needs and resources, establishes strategies, and prioritizes the use of housing and community development funds before they are spent.
For the first year of the plan, Guaynabo will receive $2.9 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, $502,000 in HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds, and $112,000 in Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds. The Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program is providing $55,000 to the municipality. These funds will finance 11 housing, community development, and service activities planned for Fiscal Year 1995.
The Community Development and Planning Office developed the Consolidated Plan using an open process that involved four public hearings and meetings. At least 60 people contributed to the development of the document by participating on the advisory committee, attending a public meeting or public hearing, or submitting written comments to the Planning Office. The citizen participation process included meetings, technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, public hearings, and access to information on the Consolidated Plan. A public comment period allowed time to respond to the housing and community development strategy and projects proposed for 1995.
Guaynabo is considered an urban area because 97 percent of the population live in the urban areas, while the remainder live in rural sections. The population density of Guaynabo is 1,323 persons per square kilometer, higher than the density of 397 persons per square kilometer in Puerto Rico as a whole.
The educational level of Guaynabo's residents is higher than that of residents in San Juan or Puerto Rico, with a greater percentage of Guaynabo's population holding bachelor's or master's degrees. Twenty percent of Guaynabo residents have a bachelor's degree, compared with 16 percent of San Juan residents, and 10 percent of Puerto Ricans as a whole.
Guaynabo contains some of the poorest and most deteriorated areas of the San Juan metropolitan area. The Amelia sector (which includes Vietnam, Jerusalem, and Sabana) and the Juan Domingo area are densely populated, marginal communities. They are characterized by deteriorated housing; poor sanitation conditions; lack of infrastructure; high incidence of crime; poor scholastic scores; and a wide spectrum of socioeconomic problems that result in a lower quality of life. The rural communities lack a good infrastructure due mostly to a lack of zoning and regulations for those areas.
According to the 1990 census, the unemployment rate in Guaynabo was 12 percent. Of the 31,637 employed residents, 63 percent are in the private sector and 37 percent are in the government sector. The commercial segment of the economy generates the most jobs (4,546 employees); public service generates 3,662 jobs; the construction industries generate 2,838 jobs; the manufacturing sector generates 2,838 jobs; health services generate 2,611 jobs; and education generates 2,641 jobs.
Median family income (MFI) for the San Juan area, according to the 1990 census, was $12,332. Of the 28,885 households in Guaynabo in 1990, 58 percent had annual incomes of 80 percent or less of MFI. Census data show the following levels of low- and moderate-income households:
With more than half of the city's households below 80 percent of MFI, housing and community development needs focus on this population.
Housing needs are estimated on the number of renter- and owner-occupied households with one or more housing problems. Households with housing problems are characterized as those that are overcrowded, occupy defective units, or are cost burdened (paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing).
It is estimated that very low- and low-income families will need 2,487 housing units during the 5 years of the Consolidated Plan. This figure represents the households currently living in substandard or overcrowded units in Guaynabo.
Guaynabo had a total of 7,055 renter-occupied and 21,830 owner-occupied housing units in 1990. This represents an increase from 5,424 renter households and 18,644 owner households in 1980. Since 1990 the number of renter-occupied units has increased by 815 (about 163 units a year). Owner-occupied units are estimated to have increased by 1,595 during the same time period. By the year 2000, it is projected that there will be 8,686 renter-occupied and 25,020 owner-occupied households in Guaynabo.
In 1990 there were 1,084 housing units classified as substandard due to deteriorated or dilapidated conditions. Of these, 318 were owner-occupied, and 766 were renter-occupied.
Average housing values were higher in Guaynabo than in San Juan and Puerto Rico as a whole. In 1990 the median home value in Guaynabo was $70,000, compared to $63,700 in San Juan and $36,200 in Puerto Rico.
A large proportion of lower income households are cost burdened or severely cost burdened (paying more than 50 percent of their income for housing). Of the 7,055 renter households in Guaynabo in 1990, 32.6 percent bore a cost burden and 19.6 percent bore a severe cost burden.
The Community Development and Planning Office supports an estimate that between 631 and 650 persons were homeless at some point in 1994. That estimate includes 168 persons in 84 homeless families with children, 60 youth (17 years of age or younger), and 403 single adults. Most of these were served by emergency or transitional housing, except 50 individual adults who were unsheltered.
Homeless with special needs include:
There are six public housing communities with a total of 1,008 housing units, all managed by the Martinal Management Corporation. Most of the housing communities were constructed between 1953 and 1979. Many of the units are either obsolete or in advanced stages of deterioration, but one-third (336) will be modernized during the next year. This work will be funded by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Comprehensive Modernization Grant.
The Housing Department of Puerto Rico administers HUD's Section 8 rental assistance program and provides Section 8 certificates and vouchers to about 300 households.
The main barriers to affordable housing in Guaynabo are land use controls and the high costs of land and construction. Because of these costs, about 80 percent of Guaynabo families need some type of assistance to buy a house. The current minimum income necessary to obtain a mortgage is $22,000.
Guaynabo certifies that it will complete an analysis for fair housing choice, in accordance with the Consolidated Plan requirement.
A test of 204 public housing units built before 1978 found 85 cases of lead contamination. The Commonwealth Department of Housing, which conducted the test, found that the most prevalent areas of contamination were in kitchens, bathrooms, and door frames.
The elderly, mentally disabled, mentally ill, physically disabled, substance abusers, and victims of domestic violence have housing and supportive needs. The needs of each group are similar for affordable and accessible housing, but they differ in the mix of appropriate supportive services.
Guaynabo will give priority to housing communities that serve very low- and low-income families and will prioritize serious and solvable community development problems when allocating its CDBG funds. Serious problems are defined as those affecting the housing, public health, welfare, recreation, and safety of the community. These problems often occur in communities that have substantially deteriorated facilities.
The municipality's housing priorities are to:
Guaynabo's nonhousing community development priorities are to:
There are 7,627 families who live below the poverty level. The linkage of supportive services and affordable housing is a critical component of a strategy to promote economic self-sufficiency. In order to break a family's dependency on the welfare system, it is necessary to change the way services are delivered. The system must support families by developing strategies to address the entire family's needs and problems.
Guaynabo plans to customize services for each family on welfare and provide the necessary support to make them self-sufficient. A plan must consider the family's needs and then respond with counseling and training to build skills for the workplace, parenting, budgeting, and household management.
The resources to carry out the 5-year plan include the $3.5 million in CDBG, HOME, HOPWA, and ESG funds received this year. It is anticipated that similar levels of HUD support for community development and housing activities will be available to Guaynabo during the remaining 4 years of the strategic plan. The municipality also plans to utilize assistance from a variety of Federal, Commonwealth, local and private sources, as it becomes available.
The Community Development and Planning Office will conduct periodic reviews to determine if Consolidated Plan programs are being implemented in a timely manner. The review will determine the status of the resources used and the progress made and will seek to identify implementation problems or noncompliance with the goals and objectives of the plan. These monitoring reviews are intended to ensure that funded activities are being carried out as intended, and to assist subrecipients with their compliance of all pertinent Federal rules and regulations.
Guaynabo will establish a program year for CDBG, HOME, ESP, and HOPWA running from July 1, 1995, through June 30, 1996.
Housing rehabilitation and medical prevention activities will take place at several sites in all zones of the municipality. The CDBG-funded recreational improvement program will take place at the Bellomonte complex and in the surrounding area, and will include work on streets, gutters, and storm sewers. Other projects, such as services for senior citizens and the disabled, will be distributed throughout the municipality.
The Community Development and Planning Office will serve as the lead agency for the coordination and implementation of the Consolidated Plan.
Housing activities included in this year's Action Plan are expected to result in 200 rehabilitated housing units.
MAP 1 depicts points of interest in the jurisdiction.
MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.
MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and minority concentration levels.
MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.
MAP 5 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.
MAP 6 is a map, sectioned by neighborhood, which depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.
MAP 7 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects within one of the four neighborhoods indicated in MAP 6.
MAP 8 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects within another of the four neighborhoods indicated in MAP 6.
MAP 9 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded project(s) from a street level vantage point; in addition, a table provides information about the project(s).
