Defending the Right to Housing for Every Tenant

Puerto Rico’s housing crisis is undeniable. Since January 2026, Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico has examined 2,166 eviction-related court cases as part of our ongoing monitoring and advocacy. The findings reveal a profound access-to-justice gap: 89.1% of tenants appearing at eviction hearings do so without legal representation.Behind every number is a family facing the possibility of losing a home. Everytime a house is at risk, and families are threatened with homelessness, we face a social question that often times goes unanswered: How can we make every individual case meaningful to build collective power around the right to stay?

Earlier this year, Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico represented Doña Ramona Cruz Sanabria, an older woman facing eviction alongside her husband and two siblings with disabilities. She was going to lose the house that has been the home of her family for more than 100 years. Despite legal representation and advocacy, a court ordered their eviction. Ramona’s response captured the human reality behind these proceedings: her family had nowhere else to go. Months later, thousands of miles away, we watched a strikingly similar story unfold in Madrid. Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was evicted from the apartment where she had lived since 1956. Her eviction generated significant public attention and mobilization around Spain’s housing crisis. Legal advocacy continued, tenants and community members organized, and public institutions became involved. Days after her eviction, an agreement created a path for Maricarmen to return to her home under a new eight-year lease with rent tied to her income.

Ramona and Maricarmen live under different legal systems, but their stories raise the same fundamental question: What happens when the law allows someone to lose their home without ensuring that they have somewhere safe to go? Their stories did not have the same outcome and learning. Maricarmen’s experience reminds us that legal empowerment can be a building block for collective power. When people know their rights, organize around them, and mobilize to demand solutions, they can challenge outcomes that once seemed inevitable. Legal knowledge can move beyond courts and law schools and become a tool for communities to build power and demand systemic change.

This is the vision behind Alquileres Dignos. We provide renters with accessible legal education, community support, advocacy, and legal assistance. But our goal is larger: to build the knowledge and collective capacity communities need to defend the right to safe and dignified housing. Ramona reminds us why this work is urgent. Maricarmen reminds us why change is possible. With your support, we can continue building tenant power in Puerto Rico, one person, one family, and one community at a time.