The Municipality of Manati located at the north central coastal area of Puerto Rico, is known as the Athens of Puerto Rico and is a mayor industrial county within the island. It's economy draws on the manufacture of chemical and electronic industries in the area, clothing manufacturing industries, commerce and government. The city of Manati was designated as an Entitled Metropolitan City on March 31, 1993.
The Municipality of Manati Consolidated Plan presents a strategic vision for the community development in this unique metropolitan area. It includes a One-Year Action Plan which lays out the proposed use of the $1,783,000.00 from the Community Development Grant program. These funds will primary be spent for the benefit of low-very low income persons within the community, on housing and neighborhood livability activities.
Meetings were held with public agencies, nonprofit organizations and community groups to collect data about housing needs of the population, with emphasis on special groups such as: Homeless, Elderly, Handicapped, Children and others. Also, information was gathered regarding community views and concerns on housing and community development issues.
Public Hearings were held at the Federal Department of the
Municipality of
Manati on January 11, 1995; March 4, 1995 and at March 14, 1995,
to obtain the
view of the citizen on the Municipality of Manati community
needs.
To assure the proposed community development goals and objectives and proposed activities and projects submitted herewith, it is necessary to present a brief description of our municipality which is located at the north central costal area of Puerto Rico and generally referred to as "The Athens of Puerto Rico".
Manati is situated at the center of the northern coast of Puerto Rico, limited at the North by the Atlantic Ocean, East by the Municipality of Vega Baja, South by the Municipalities of Ciales and Morovis, and west by the Municipality of Barceloneta.
Its location on the north coast of Puerto Rico, near the Capital City, added to excellent communication systems, have promoted the economic development and population growth of the Municipality, which reached the amount of 38,692 inhabitants by 1990.
Per capita income in the municipality is $3,434 and the median family income is about $8,226. People living under poverty level standard is estimated in 25,032; representing 65% of total population.
Due to the economic growth of the local economy, Manati was
designated as an
Entitled Metropolitan City under the Community Development Grant
Program, to be
effective with Federal Fiscal Year 1994.
Top employers within the metropolitan area of Manati are the chemical and manufacturing industries, commerce, agriculture, state and local government. Local economy is dominated by manufacturing industry and agriculture. Manati unemployment rate is around 24% and 64.81% of our population is still below poverty level.
The needs section of the plan outlines the extent of need by various groups for housing and the problems with community development that need to be addressed.
Due to dynamics of the economic situation, the private housing developers have been very active in the provision of housing for low, medium and moderate income families, with owner and renter households with great housing needs.
Total housing units in Manati is estimated at 13,337. From this amount, 11,892 (89%) are occupied and 1,445 (11%) are vacant. It is considered that 12,054 (90%) housing units in Manati are in good structural condition.
About 649 units (5%) are considered "substandard" and 634 (4.8%) that were inadequately constructed.
Economic and population growth are experienced in Manati, its favorable location has attracted more industries, commerce and people who has choose to locate in this Municipality. Therefore, a careful planning process has been develop in Manati to ensure that this Municipality reach a potential development.
The construction activities during the last 2 years were higher in comparison with the other Municipalities that comprise the Region of Arecibo, of which we are part of. During the year 1990 the Puerto Rico Planning Board reported in its Construction Study 457 units under construction in Manati. Of this units 216 had an average price of $96,000.00 constructed for high income families and 197 units had an average selling price of $37,600.00 constructed for medium income families and an additional 42 units were constructed for rent.
For sale in 1996 it is presently under construction a project known as Monte Verde which consist of 650 units for families with monthly income of approximately $1,000.00, considered low moderate income families.
The Municipality of Manati does not have shelters for the Homeless. Homeless populations are provided services through different state, local and nonprofit agencies. State and area institutions serve not only Manati, but also the Municipalities which surround it. Matters are complicated further, since agencies located in other Municipalities serve Manati as well, and services are not recorded by Municipality, but by area. This condition, added to the fact that more than one agency serves the same people, have made the collection of data impossible. The task of segregating populations and services provided by Municipality, Category, Age, Sex and Needs, requires personnel and time which these agencies do not have readily available.
The identified homeless population can be classified in two main categories. The first category consists of homeless individuals in shelters or shelter-type institutions. The second category includes those persons who could not be served by existing programs due to lack of facilities or other resources described as population in waiting lists and traditional homeless, who lack a fixed, adequate night time residence and sleep in places not designed or regularly used as sleeping accommodations for human beings. Persons in this last group are mainly concentrated in the urban core of the city or its immediate surroundings.
The main problems showed by the homeless population in Manati are: mental disabilities, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Some are victims of domestic violence, runaway youths, pregnant teenagers, and handicapped people.
The need of shelters in Manati is clearly evident by the fact that Manati does not have shelters for the homeless. Services are mainly provided by State agencies that have to send homeless people to other Municipalities.
The only soup kitchen that served food for the homeless was canceled last year for lack of funds. It served 25 to 30 meals daily, taken in a bus especially adapted for these purpose, to the Town Square where most of homeless people congregated.. The homeless people that used this service were traditional, alcoholics, drug addicts and mentally ill.
Assisted housing stock in Manati totals 983 units, which represents 7% of the total housing stock. Of this total, 505 are in good condition, 214 are undergoing minor rehabilitation, and 264 are undergoing comprehensive modernization. Out of these 983 units, a total of 12 are vacant, of which 6 are only temporarily vacant due to rehabilitation. Total vacancy rate amounts to 1%.
The Municipal Housing Department, section 8 program maintains a Waiting List which compiles 453 requests; of these, 60 are for 1 bedroom, 235 are for 2 bedrooms, and 158 are for 3 bedrooms. Requests on the list are made up of Elderly, Unwed Mothers, Head of Households, Evicted, Homeless Persons, and Aids patients.
The Municipality of Manati has identified significant segments with special housing needs for families within the income categories of extremely low and low income families; that present several characteristics; elderly; families with female as head of the household; homeless; handicapped; families with an income below the poverty level; families with members with AIDS; large families living in inadequate homes; persons with disability problems living in sectors that don't presents access facilities and families that can not afford their housing needs without assistance.
Obsolescent sectors in the older areas of Manati which have remained unattended, have original inadequate construction and/or are in deteriorated conditions. Some areas were established decades ago, mostly by agricultural laborers, who, either settled in the private lands where they worked or, invade State owned land, passing thereafter their dwellings to their children and grandchildren. Some areas were legally settled or acquired, but lack of planning and funds have left these areas with an inadequate infrastructure. This result in an impediment in these areas to affordable housing.
The Housing Department of the Municipality of Manati acting as the Public Housing Agency (PHA), has adopted strategies from the Self-Sufficiency Program to achieve an effective coordination of government assistance and private programs to established strategies to deal with those affordable housing barriers and assisting low and very low income families with their problem, particularly achieving strategies to become home owners, this way reducing the dependency on governmental programs.
Housing is an extremely complex field. Estimates include the existing housing stock, new construction, the evaluation of the condition of the unit, the population of the area and its growth and the economic capacity of the people to be self sufficient to obtain or provide for themselves an adequate housing unit.
For these reasons, it is very critical for a community to accurately estimate the condition of the existing housing stock. To the effect of the evaluation of the condition of the housing stock in the community, we evaluated the statistic profile, using the parameter of tenancy (rent, home owners), the number of occupied units and their condition; adequate or sub-adequate.
However specific information on the profile of owners and renters is not public, making it difficult to obtain statistics in terms of discrimination due to barriers or condition of occupant, thus affecting taking provisions for fair housing remedies.
As part of our housing policies and programs we will create a lead-based monitoring program that will be established within the local PHA, as a strategy directed to organize and trains the Municipal Department of Housing, with a group of housing inspectors to evaluate and identify the lead-based painted units in the Municipality. Evaluate the housing stock to determine the age of units. Train personnel to identify units with lead-base paint. Assist families in isolated cases and treat the units.
Manati unemployment rate is around 24% and 64.81% of our
populations still
below poverty level. Also developing skills through training and
retraining of
low-income persons, giving working or back to school
opportunities are part of
the Municipality of Manati important needs. Service as child
care, pre-school
educational programs, emergency assistance and accessible
transportation are
some of the supportive services necessary, due to the increase in
single head of
household in the community.
Priority analysis and strategy development strategies delineated by the Manati Municipal Administration, in terms of housing, are based in the necessity to alleviate the existent unbalance between low income families and the affordability of housing units, at market rates. The basis for the decision to serve these sectors are; the goal of all civilization is to provide affordable housing to its people; complying with the basic necessity of all citizens to possess a basic space and a right to safety, protection and privacy; reservation-to assist groups with special needs to maintain and preserve adequate units; citizens have different levels of needs and governments assistance must be founded in the provision of equal opportunities for all, regardless of race, sex, age or national origin.
The Municipal Administration has established its priorities in terms of the previous delineated strategy based on analysis of the Municipality of Manati residents needs, and the market inventory within the jurisdiction. Also the revitalization of the residential and community commercial areas are part of the community development efforts which are remarked by the Municipality of Manati through the planning process of territorial control plan named "Plan de Ordenación Territorial", in order to acquire planning competence as an Autonomous Municipality. At the completion of this process the Municipal Administration can control within its jurisdiction the making of plans, control of zoning, building codes etc., then it will be in position to establish public policies that give incentives for the construction of affordable housing units.
Priorities for affordable housing include increasing and maintaining in optimal conditions the low and moderate income families housing stock and the supply of existing standard, affordable housing units through the rehabilitation process.
Priorities for homelessness alleviation include the collection of data, the Municipal Administration is trying to unite the different agencies serving homeless persons and special groups into a committee. The main purpose of said committee will be to design a method of segregation collection on data of services which region and area agencies provide to Manati from other Municipalities and which can also be used for local institutions.
Priorities for non-homeless persons with special needs are emphasizing the construction of units to be made available for elderly, handicapped, and other people with special needs.
Priorities for mixed-used areas include creating a living environment to include low-mod income residents.
Priorities for economic development activities include the development of zone near community areas through construction of projects that will provide new working opportunities within the zone.
Priorities for other community development activities includes public facilities improvements (parks, basketball courts and recreation centers), infrastructure improvements (street, sidewalk and sewer) and public service provision.
Anti-Poverty Strategy is hard to state taking into consideration factors in the Municipal Administration absence of controls and powers to deal with problem such as zoning poverty, etc... At this moment to deal with this situation and others extremely urgent for the local government a Territorial Plan is been develop by a group of expert in connection with municipal staff.
Within the programs available to support social assistance for families in crisis are Head Start, Child Care, Job Training Partnership Program, Job Corps and Self Sufficiency program.
Within the Municipality of Manati, the primary Federal Program resources include CDBG, Section 8, JTPA and Head Start, Department of Justice programs. Resources available from the State include Social Service Agencies, Family Assistance and Health Department programs.
The Manati Federal Programs Affair Office is responsible for the Consolidated Plan activities, but other agencies are involved in administrating plan components. For example the Manati Community Service Office coordinates emergency assistance, assistance to homeless and the community needs requirements are coordinated through this office.
Although this municipality has work hard to straight community
development
with the coordination of citizens, governmental agencies,
nonprofit and private
organization as long as developing the Consolidated Plan, it is
knew that time
and effort must be spent to gather services and assistance
accurately as
planned.
The action plan lays out the proposed use of the $1,783,000.00 from the Community Development Grant programs, these projects are marked and identified in the Master Map No. 5, showing projects location with low-mod outlined and unemployment area identified.
The proposed projections were prepared after analyzing, planning and considering the information obtained through the above mentioned procedure.
This year the proposed activities and their amounts are as follows:
Almost all projects are located in neighborhood our residential areas, funds will be spent mostly on public improvements to streets, recreational facilities and homeowners house rehabilitation as suggested by citizens during public hearings.
Note as a remark that in the Municipality of Manati no ethnic concentration breakdown has been identified at this time.
The Municipality of Manati housing goals for this first year includes affordable housing through the rehabilitation to homeowners property and the assistance through incentive to private sector during the construction of a housing project that will provided affordable housing to more than 650 new homeowner, placing families participant in the self-sufficiency program and providing assistance through section 8 program.
MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.
MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.
MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects; in addition, a table provides information about the project(s)
MAP 5 depicts Neighborhood Streets with proposed HUD funded projects.
