Thousands in Puerto Rico still without housing since Maria
By DÁNICA COTO
34 minutes ago
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Nearly three years after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, tens of thousands of homes remain badly damaged, many people face a hurricane season under fading blue tarp roofs and the island’s first major program to repair and rebuild houses hasn’t completed a single one.
Maria hit more than 786,000 homes on Sept. 20, 2017, causing minor damage to some homes and sweeping others from their foundations. A federally funded program administered by local officials carried out relatively small repairs to some 108,000 homes the next year, while churches and nonprofits patched up thousands with private funds.
A Puerto Rican government program known as R3 is the first major effort by the U.S. territory to carry out major repairs and rebuilding of damaged and destroyed housing. Nearly 27,000 homeowners have applied. But nearly 1 1/2 years after federal funding was released to local officials, not a single repair or rebuilding job has been completed.
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Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico with 155 mph (249 kph) winds, and its center spent eight hours over the U.S. territory, obliterating the electricity grid and causing more than an estimated $100 billion in damage. An estimated 2,975 people died in the storm’s aftermath.
More:
https://apnews.com/a2cf35e2f8893592ec4b59d90baae1ac
San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz
