Justice and Human Rights Puerto Rico Project #43335

Legal Empowerment to Stop Foreclosures Puerto Rico

by Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico

Project Report | Apr 13, 2022
Time is ticking: 3 months till hurricane season

By Ariadna Godreau Aubert | Founder and Director

Last week Puerto Rico experience an island-wide blackout. In some regions, the power outage lasted for four days. Access to energy is essential for many, particularly for elders and people with disabilities or chronic conditions. The fragility of the energy grid is one of the consequences of neglected disasters. The impact of austerity joined that of major hurricanes. Privatization and negligent management, speculation, and resistance to adopt a climate justice perspective on energy have aggravated the crisis. Three months before the hurricane season starts, we see the phantom of neglect everywhere. With thousands of houses under blue tarps five years after María, only a few thousand families have received adequate assistance to repair or rebuild their houses, and with a worsening tendency to displacement, we need to call the government to act now.

While we reiterate our demands of just recovery, we start our disaster readiness journey this month. We will be training lawyers, housing counselors, community leaders, and social workers on the essential legal tools they need to accompany survivors after an emergency. We hope that this workshop will pave the way to reinforce community protocols, given the lack of official plans to prevent, mitigate and attend crises.

Disasters may not be fashionable at this moment. When crises occur, there is a window of support and solidarity that closes too soon, although essential and life-saving. The sequels of disasters - the aggravated precarity- are often unseen. Supporting and donating to Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico and this project shifts that narrative and promotes long-term recovery and climate justice. Donate now. We can do more.

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Dec 8, 2021
Let's work together and guarantee housing in 2022

By Ariadna Godreau Aubert | Founder and Executive Director

As we wrap up 2022, we create spaces to update and gather much-needed data about the foreclosure crisis in Puerto Rico. We also count our wins and remind ourselves about the long road ahead. As per the last official numbers, between 2017 and October 2021, nearly 16,000 homes were foreclosed. This means that multiple disasters did not slow down the impact of housing insecurity on families on the Island. Our lawyers have identified at least 1000 new foreclosure cases presented throughout these past 12 months.

In this context, legal empowerment efforts continue to be central. During 2021 - and in part thanks to your support- more than 900 people participated in our legal empowerment against foreclosures program. We have been able to socialize legal knowledge around essential tools such as information request processes so that families learn about their mortgage loan status and legal defenses after moratoriums on payments expire. We have offered assistance and a safe space for people confused, ashamed, and afraid of foreclosure processes. To convey power, we complement these efforts with movie nights, workshops provided by mental health practitioners, and plenaries of families affected by disasters. We are gathering data to help us understand the impact of our strategies impact on elders and women. We will share some insight on wins and challenges with you soon.

We face 2022 with hope and intention. Your continued support will help us expand this program and add new people to our team, an action that will multiply the capacity of our organization to promote dignified housing. We will be working with people - families - and through them continue defending the right to a systemic change that prioritizes the possibility of life, dwelling, and growth in the Island we call home.

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Apr 23, 2021
Transition time: New Anti Foreclosure Project!

By Ariadna Godreau Aubert | Founder / Executive director

Its been a little more than a year since we started this fundraising to support our work against foreclosures. With your support, we are glad to announce that we have accomplished the goals set. We are ready to ask you to join us in a new journey towards legal empowerment and housing justice.

Today, as we transition to this new fundraiser, we acknowledge and celebrate how every cent allocated to this initiative translated into sustained legal support and empowerment. We can do so much with your help. Let's go quickly over some of our achievements for this term.

In 2020 we offered accompaniment to hundreds of families thanks to your support. This process did not pause because of earthquakes or the pandemic. Realizing that crisis increases the vulnerabilities of those who can't afford mortgages, we committed to being as present as possible.
We had 620 participants at our legal education and advocacy workshops.
Because we decided to be present, we dedicated more resources to legal helplines, available all day every day. We provided direct individual support to 163 families, primarily women, and elders in Puerto Rico.
We trained 64 attorneys committed to the right to housing.
We sustained continuous efforts to demand financial institutions' respect for human rights. We launched #JustMoratorium campaigns and educated people about the rights relating to foreclosures at times of crisis.
We were in media, a lot to denounce, demand, and celebrate significant wins on behalf of women and families with mortgages.
We promoted storytelling initiatives to tell people that they are not alone, that we are here to accompany them because you all make this possible. Remember Ritha's story and know more about the access to justice community

Together we can do much more. Please continue supporting Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico. You can find our new project on legal empowerment against foreclosures here.

Please keep in touch, let us know about your ideas and recommendations, help us be more effective, and most important: donate, support, trust.

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