Housing Secretary William Rodríguez met today with President of the Chamber, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, where they discussed situations affecting the municipalities, such as the lack of liquidity to implement the projects and the required certification.
“There is an important commitment from the President of the House that will be of great help to the program and its implementation, exempting the municipalities from that certification or allowing it to be certified against that item placed with the Housing Funds. . I think that would greatly help the municipalities to implement. This idea of the president is exceptional ”, Rodríguez writes in a written communication.
The Public Funds Monitoring Commission, chaired by Representative Angel Fourquet Cordero, held a public hearing to establish the necessary procedures and structures to control the use and management of the agencies’ resources, instruments, programs and federal funds, instruments, public corporations and municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
“All of Puerto Rico deserves the most transparent and flexible processes to ensure the availability and use of all federal programs and resources. The abuse and inordinate delay that contribute to the constant mistrust of the people of Puerto Rico in their institutions must remain in the past. Therefore, the House of Representatives understands the urgent need to ensure the proper use and management of the resources, instruments, programs and federal funds allocated to our jurisdiction, ”said Commission Chairman Fourquet Cordero in a written communication .
The Secretary of the Housing Department, William Rodríguez Rodríguez, appeared at the public hearing, accompanied by the undersecretary of the CDBG-DR program, Maretzie Díaz; and Samir El Hage, partner of Horne LLP Company.
On February 26, the Secretary of the Department of Housing was given the opportunity to communicate with the new administration of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to discuss critical priorities and the immediate needs of this agency.
Likewise, he asked for the disbursement of funds from the Block Grant for Community Development for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) to be expedited, in response, he received a response that Puerto Rico will have access to $ 20 billion for the island’s recovery.
“Accessing these funds has been a difficult road, fraught with restrictions and unequal treatment from the federal government. Only in 2019, after much exchange and work by the department, evaluation after evaluation, the first grant agreement will be signed to start designing programs to finally implement them. There was access to $ 1.5 billion, ”said the Secretary of the Department of Housing.
Last January, the Department of Housing established a municipal affairs working group designated exclusively to look after the needs of each of the 78 municipalities. Likewise, work teams were established to respond to requests from federal entities and to make the solutions proposed by their work team feasible.
The Department of Housing is expected to follow a comprehensive process relying on outside entities such as the HUD’s Fiscal Control Board and the Federal Financial Monitor, an additional oversight position created by the HUD specifically for Puerto Rico, to access funds . Future.
On the other hand, the Department of Housing has set aside a post of $ 50 million in government money for the most affected municipalities in the southern region for construction demolition and with the approval of the Fiscal Control Board (FOMB, for the acronym) in English. ) reconstruction and repair of properties. In addition, PRDOH met with HUD to discuss requirements for an announced $ 36.4 million allocation to address the southern area disaster triggered 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 drafting the plan, in particular with the municipalities of Guayanilla, Guánica, Yauco and Ponce, identified by HUD as the most affected and needy 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,” said Rodríguez.
The representative Lydia Méndez, for her part, emphasized the needs of the peoples of the southern area. “The House of Representatives is taking the Total Commission to several cities in Puerto Rico to learn more about the needs that exist in this country,” added Méndez.
Likewise, the Housing Secretary said the mayors must do the first immediate redress to use the $ 50 million maximum, and the second for the Mitigation Fund to reach the grant agreement to address the issue as soon as possible. “These are the immediate mechanisms we need to inject money into the southern area and address the problem as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Since my arrival, I have given myself the task of granting the mayors access to sign the agreements. All programs have increased and mayors have been drenched, ”said the Secretary of the Department of Housing.
On the other hand, the Department of Housing has rented a company called Horne LLP for $ 122 million for three years. This company helps you manage federal funds. Housing makes its evaluation and finds that it requires the recruitment of a company that can help the Department of Housing add capacity to manage federal funds. We were officially hired by Housing before May 2019 ”, explains the partner of the company Horne LLP.