U.S. Territories

After natural disasters, recovery efforts tend to lift up those who have resources to bounce back quickly, but cement poverty for those with modest means.

Puerto Rico faces enormous challenges due to its history as a colony, the state of its finances, and the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria and the US response to it. This has created a will to rebuild the island’s economy in line with a more community-owned vision.

Low- and moderate-income families in Puerto Rico would get a significant income boost from the Working Families Tax Relief Act, which would substantially expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in Puerto Rico as well as nationally and also help the Commonwealth expand its own, recently implemented Earned

Puerto Rico was in financial distress and had crumbling infrastructure before Hurricane Maria, and many residents complain of government malfeasance that exacerbated the storm’s impact, echoing criticism from Washington.

A shortage of affordable housing on this island territory has forced hundreds of families to remain in damaged and leaky houses during the lengthy recovery effort.

Use of the $35 billion in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds for the 2017 hurricanes has been slow. Over a year after the first funds were appropriated, much of the money remains unspent because grantees in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and the U.S.

The U.S. territory needs to urgently tackle issues such as "widespread informal housing" and "the exorbitant amount of abandoned spaces" as it rebuilds after Hurricane Maria.