The Secretary of the Department of Housing, William Rodríguez, met today with the President of the Chamber, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, where they discussed situations that affect municipalities, such as the lack of liquidity to be able to carry out projects and the certification requirement.
“There is an important commitment of the President of the House that will be of great help for the program and the execution, where it is released to the municipalities of this certification or that it can be certified against this game that has been put with housing funds. I think this would greatly help municipalities to be able to execute. This idea the president is exceptional, “Rodriguez in written communication.
The Public Funds Audit Committee, chaired by Representative Àngel Fourquet Be, held a public hearing in order to establish the necessary procedures and structures to monitor, monitor and carry out ongoing evaluations on the use and management of resources. tools, programs and federal funds by the agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations and municipalities of the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico.
“All of Puerto Rico deserves the most transparent and agile of processes to ensure the availability and use of all federal programs and resources. There must be in the past the misuse and excessive latency that pays tribute to the constant distrust of the people of Puerto Rico In the face of this, the House of Representatives understands the urgency of ensuring the proper use and management of the federal resources, tools, programs and funds allocated to our jurisdiction, “said Commission President Fourquet Be in a statement. written.
The Secretary of the Department of Housing, William Rodríguez Rodríguez, was present at the public hearing, accompanied by the Undersecretary of the CDBG-DR Program, Maretzie Díaz; and Samir El Hage, partner of the Horne LLP Company.
On February 26, the Secretary of the Department of Housing had the opportunity to contact the new administration of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to discuss priorities. criticism and the immediate needs of this agency.
He also requested to expedite the disbursement of funds from the Community Development Grant for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR), receiving in response that Puerto Rico will have access to $ 20 trillion for the recovery of the island.
“It has been a difficult path to gain access to these funds, full of restrictions and unequal treatment by the federal government. It is not until 2019, after much exchange and work by the Department, evaluation after evaluation, that s “He manages to sign the first grant agreement so he can start designing programs to eventually run them. Here he was given access to $ 1.5 trillion,” the housing department secretary argued.
Last January, the Department of Housing established a working group for municipal affairs, designated exclusively to meet the needs of each of the 78 municipalities. Similarly, work teams were established dedicated to meeting the requests of federal entities and making viable the solutions proposed by their work team.
The Department of Housing is expected to follow an extensive process that depends on external entities such as the Fiscal Control Board and the HUD Federal Financial Monitor, an additional oversight site created by HUD specifically for Puerto Rico, to access to future fund items.
On the other hand, the Department of Housing allocated an item of $ 50 million of state funds allocated to the most affected municipalities in the southern region for the demolition of structures and through the approval of the Board of Fiscal Control (FOMB , for the acronym in English) the reconstruction and repair of properties. In addition, Housing met with HUD to discuss the requirements for an announced $ 36.4 million allocation to address the southern area disaster caused by the 2020 earthquakes.
The Action Plan must be submitted on or before August 9, 2021, Housing will meet with the affected municipalities to begin the process of drafting the Plan, in particular with the municipalities of Guayanilla, Guánica, Yauco and Ponce, which were declared by HUD as the most affected and needed areas. “Once the CDBG-MIT (mitigation) funds are available, they will be used in part to address the emergency caused by the seismic sequence in the south,” Rodriguez said.
For her part, representative Lydia Méndez emphasized the needs of the peoples of the southern area. “The House of Representatives is bringing the Total Commission to different towns in Puerto Rico to meet the needs that exist in this country,” Méndez added.
The Secretary of Housing also mentioned that the first immediate remedy is for mayors to use up to $ 50 million, and the second for the Mitigation Fund to reach a grant agreement to address the problem on as soon as possible. “These are the immediate mechanisms we have to inject funds into the southern area and address the problem as quickly as possible,” he argued.
“Since I arrived I have given myself the task of getting the mayors to get access to sign the agreements. All the programs have increased and the mayors are soaked,” the Housing Department secretary said.
On the other hand, the Department of Housing has a company called Horne LLP contracted for $ 122 million for three years. This company gives you assistance in managing federal funds. “Housing conducts its assessment and determines that it requires hiring a company that can assist the Department of Housing to add capacity to manage federal funds. Officially, by May 2019 we were hired by Housing,” explained Horne’s company partner LLP.