San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico. Its inhabitants numbered 437,745 in 1990. Puerto Rico was discovered and claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in 1493, and colonization began in 1503. A strongly fortified San Juan was a key Spanish bastion and port in the New World for almost four centuries. Puerto Rico remained a colony of Spain until 1898 when it was ceded to the United States after the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship and the right to elect the island's legislature in 1917. Puerto Rico was granted commonwealth status and its own constitution in 1952.
Today the municipality of San Juan sprawls over 47.8 square miles. It has 18 political subdivisions, or "barrios," and is divided into four major districts. Old San Juan, "San Juan Antiguo," is a compact historic district on an island at the mouth of the harbor, the cultural center and a major tourist attraction. Santurce, on the main island just inland from San Juan Antiguo, is a center for government offices. Hato Rey is the main banking and financial services center, and Rio Piedras, with the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico, is the island's principal educational center and a transportation hub for connections to the rest of the island.
In its Consolidated Plan, San Juan describes its housing and community development needs and priorities, and a 5-year strategy for addressing these needs using Federal and other resources. For the first year of the plan, San Juan is requesting $15.5 million in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, $4.9 million in HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds, $4 million of Housing for People with AIDS (HOPWA) monies, and a $600,000 Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG). This money will be used to finance the 34 housing, community development, and service activities planned for Fiscal Year 1995.
To prepare this Consolidated Plan, San Juan held semimonthly meetings of the Consolidated Plan task force of municipal department representatives. It consulted with Commonwealth agencies, private and nonprofit organizations, and citizens. San Juan's Planning and Budget Office (PBO) advertised and held five public hearings. At the first two, the planning process was explained, and a Spanish-language draft of a citizen participation plan was distributed. The meeting also provided interested parties with information on the activities eligible for funding by the CDBG, ESG, HOME, and HOPWA programs.
Three additional hearings were held to collect input on the various communities' housing, service, and community development needs. In addition to being publicized with advertisements in local newspapers, these meetings were announced on the municipality's daily radio program, and community and nonprofit groups were reminded by personal and telephone contacts.
San Juan's population in 1990 was 437,745. The city's population grew rapidly until 1970 because of industrialization that drew families from the countryside to metropolitan San Juan in search of opportunity. During the 1970s the city's population dropped by 6.5 percent for a variety of social and economic reasons, including rising housing and land prices. During the 1980s there was again a slight increase (0.7 percent) in the municipality's population.
Median family income (MFI) for the municipality of San Juan, according to the 1990 census, was $12,332. HUD Adjusted Median Family Income (HAMFI) was $26,900, according to the 1990 CHAS Databook. HAMFI adjusts family income according to housing cost value for the metropolitan area and the number of family members in the household.
Of the 150,592 households in San Juan, 75 percent have annual incomes at or below 80 percent ($21,520) or less of HAMFI.
The major background factor implicit in housing and community development considerations is the low income of so many of the municipality's residents. Two-thirds of the city's households have incomes of less than 80 percent of the median of HAMFI. More than 40 percent of all renters pay more than 30 percent of their income for their housing. These families have difficulty paying for their other basic needs, such as food, clothing, and transportation.
An additional 1,238 housing units per year will be needed in San Juan for 1996 through 1998. Housing for lower- and moderate-income families (those with annual incomes less than $21,450) make up about 67 percent of all housing needed from 1996 through 1998.
The municipality of San Juan's housing stock consisted of 167,709 units in 1990. Of these, 68,223 (40 percent) were occupied by renters and 82,639 (49 percent) by owners. There were 5,384 vacant units for rent and 2,025 for sale.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) fair market rent (FMR) is an indicator of the rental market. The FMR in San Juan for a two-bedroom unit is $460 and $575 for a three-bedroom unit. For these rents to be affordable with 30 percent of income, a family's annual income would need to be at least $18,400 and $23,000 respectively.
The most active segment of the for-sale housing market in San Juan is between $80,000 and $120,000, with prices averaging $90,000.
Of San Juan's 55,182 extremely low-income (0-30 percent of MFI) households, 47 percent are cost burdened by paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and 32 percent are severely cost burdened by paying more than 50 percent. Of 25,902 low-income (81-50 percent of MFI) households, 88.4 percent are cost burdened, with 14.2 percent severely cost burdened.
There is no firm figure for the number of homeless persons in San Juan. One reason is that homelessness is usually a temporary condition. Another is that reports by organizations serving the homeless cover differing time periods, and may include overlapping data because individual homeless persons may use more than one service.
The Family Services and Mental Health departments of the municipality of San Juan report serving a population of 1,758 homeless for the period of July 1993 to June 1994. This homeless count includes 295 persons in 107 families with children; 62 youths (17 years of age or younger); and 1,401 adults who are not in families. Of these, 65 families with 193 members remained unsheltered, as did 17 youths and 884 individual adults. The rest were served by emergency shelters or transitional housing.
Subpopulations of the homeless with special needs were as follows:
Ten institutions with 219 beds serve as emergency shelters in San Juan. Some of these serve specific subpopulations. Five nonprofit organizations offer basic supportive services in day shelters. Most of the 62 beds for transitional housing serve only men. Only two organizations, the Salvation Army and Hogar del Buen Pastor, provide transitional housing. All of the 200 beds of permanent housing in the municipality are for children only, most of whom are female. The Services for the Homeless program located 57 homeless persons in permanent housing during Fiscal Year 1994.
There are 28,681 households with very low, low, and moderate incomes benefiting from the different housing programs offered by both the municipal and commonwealth governments, including public housing units. The Public Housing Administration reports that there are 19,031 public housing units in 54 communities in the municipality of San Juan.
San Juan's Department of Housing administers a Section 8 rental assistance program with 2,639 certificates and 1,293 vouchers. There also are 673 project-based certificates in use under HUD's Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation program, and 50 used for the Family Self-Sufficiency program. The Commonwealth (Puerto Rico's State-level government) also has 1,538 tenant-based and project-based Section 8 certificates and vouchers in use in San Juan. There is a waiting list of 2,582 households for the Section 8 program.
Housing assistance under other HUD programs includes 875 HOME units and 507 constructed or rehabilitated units under the HOPWA program. Another 2,075 affordable housing units were built with the assistance of the Puerto Rican Housing Corporation or with Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit incentive.
Public sector barriers to the development, maintenance, and improvement of affordable housing in San Juan include:
The municipality of San Juan has prepared a Territorial Ordainment Plan in accordance with the Commonwealth Autonomous Municipalities Law of 1991. When this plan is approved, San Juan will have power over its land use and zoning matters.
Affordable housing is limited because San Juan is an urban zone with almost all of its land developed; only an estimated 5 to 8 percent remains for possible development. A change in development patterns is expected, from a horizontal pattern that has produced the existing urban sprawl to a vertical, more dense, and costly type of development.
Based on the age of housing units, it is estimated that there were 156,220 housing units that could contain lead-based paint in the municipality of San Juan in 1990. The city recognizes the need to establish effective strategies to identify the specific units that have lead-based paint hazards.
There are also housing and supportive needs for persons who are not homeless but require supportive housing, such as the elderly, mentally disabled, mentally ill, physically disabled, substance abusers, and victims of domestic violence. Eleven Diagnostic and Treatment Centers serve the medical needs of the elderly. In 1994 the municipality served 150 persons with impairments or handicaps and 1,193 persons with HIV/AIDS. Various nonprofit organizations served approximately 2,970 persons with drug or alcohol addiction problems.
In addition to the common municipal needs for repairs and updating of infrastructure such as streets and sewer lines, the municipality of San Juan has some unique development needs.
One is historic preservation. Settled in 1503, San Juan has many Spanish colonial buildings more than two or three centuries old. A 1992 study of the San Juan Historic Zone by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation, and Spain's Fifth Century in the Americas National Commission evaluated 890 colonial-period buildings. About 87 percent were rated as well conserved or moderately conserved. Of the rest 46 were described as "badly conserved," 8 as "in ruins," 17 as "in absolute ruin," and 47 as "in a terrible state of conservation."
The municipality's responsibility for colonial-era buildings extends beyond their obvious cultural and historic values. Deteriorated structures of any age are a blight and speed the deterioration of the surrounding community. In the case of Old San Juan, the neighborhood is also a significant economic asset, generating revenue from tourism.
There is also a major need for continuing economic development of San Juan, with an emphasis on the development of enterprises that will generate jobs for low- and moderate-income residents.
San Juan's general objectives include:
Highest housing priorities are:
Population segments with the highest priority needs are cost-burdened, lower-income renters or small families; elderly cost-burdened, lower-income renters; and at-risk households living on unstable land.
For the homeless the areas of highest priority are transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and permanent housing for families, adult individuals, and persons with special needs.
Short-term higher priorities for public facilities are day care centers, youth centers, and relocation of the city hall mail center. Long-term priorities are construction of a new municipal hospital, upgrades to parking structures, extension and improvements to Central Park, and renovation of the headquarters of the Municipal Guard in Rio Piedras.
A municipal priority is to comply with the standards for handicapped accessibility required under the Americans With Disabilities Act. San Juan has a transitional plan, calling for specific accessibility-related modifications of 38 municipal facilities. The specified improvements range from signs to identify handicapped parking spaces to the construction of new accessible bathrooms or installation of elevators in multilevel facilities.
Infrastructure priorities include a solid waste disposal system, asbestos removal, and an aqueduct.
Longer-term economic development priorities are rehabilitation of three market plazas and improvements to the traditional urban centers of Old San Juan, Condado, Santurce, and Rio Piedras. Short-term priorities include extension of a pedestrian mall in Rio Piedras and construction of a promenade linking the campus of the University of Puerto Rico with the central plaza of Rio Piedras. Another short-term priority is to assist in establishing small businesses in all sections of San Juan.
Two-thirds of the households in San Juan have incomes of less than 80 percent of the median of HAMFI. Antipoverty strategies must include an effective and coordinated effort to help ensure economic stability and satisfy the basic needs of families with limited resources.
San Juan's strategy for extremely low-, low-, and moderate-income communities is to promote the development of communal or small-business enterprises and economic activities that generate jobs.
The municipality of San Juan plans to use CDBG, HOME, HOPWA and ESG funds to carry out the 5-year plan. Other resources include a variety of Federal and State programs and the work of a number of nonprofit organizations.
The Planning and Budget Office of the municipality of San Juan is the lead agency for the coordination and implementation of the Consolidated Plan.
The basic approach to coordination will be the continuation of the close working relationship between city departments that was established during the development of the Consolidated Plan. The Interdepartmental Work Group that developed the plan will b ecome permanent, meeting weekly to serve a quality control function.
The nonprofit organizations involved with plan activities and the Interdepartmental Work Group will meet every 3 months to monitor the implementation and to adjust the process as necessary. Information generated during these meetings also will be used in the annual evaluation of the plan's implementation.
For the program year 1995-1996, San Juan will use about $25 million of CDBG, HOME, ESG, and HOPWA funding for 34 activities to address specific housing, community development, and human services needs.
Housing is allocated $7.9 million, primarily for rehabilitation activities, including:
For the homeless the budget includes:
For community development projects, $3.9 million is allotted, including:
For economic development $275,000 is allocated for development activities in Old San Juan and for assistance to microenterprises.
To assist nonprofit and public agencies providing services to lower-income residents, $2.3 million is allocated, including:
Activities included in San Juan's action plan will take place primarily in CDBG-eligible lower-income neighborhoods. Some will be performed at locations such as community or local health centers, but others, such as enforcement of building codes, may take place anywhere in the municipality. Sites of most housing rehabilitation work are yet to be determined.
Housing activities included in this year's action plan are expected to result in 212 new or 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).
Mr. Rafael Fernandez
Federal Programs Director
Municipality of San Juan
Phone: 809-725-2006
