Puerto Rico’s roofs are still covered by blue FEMA tarps, or are they still living in homes? A recent challenge for FEMA after Hurricane Maria
The Federal Emergency Management Agency sunk over a billion dollars into a program intended to provide essential repairs to homes in Puerto Rico, which caused demand for other shelter options to diminish. Repairs such as repairing broken windows and repairing doors weren’t prepared to handle future storms. The contractors gamed it by charging high prices for shoddy work.
Public works have been challenged before. A temporary bridge built by FEMA contractors in Ohio cost almost $3 million to build and was placed in the town of Utuado. It was supposed to last 75 years, but last month it was washed down by floods. The bridge that Maria destroyed was built as a temporary structure after Hurricane Georges in 1998.
The application is not straightforward and many fear being denied when they register for $700 to help cover essentials in Puerto Rico.
The delayed bureaucracy was not the only thing that occurred after Hurricane Maria, applicants were also overly scrutinized as a result. A recently released report by the United States Commission on Civil Rights showed that FEMA placed unnecessary requirements on Puerto Rico residents. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, hundreds of thousands of families that applied for federal assistance were denied, most often because they were unable to prove ownership of their homes — even though homeownership is not a requirement for aid and various forms of documentation could have been accepted.
Luis Marrero’s crews ask which of the hurricanes is to blame when they meet the families whose roofs have been damaged. It was unclear as to which Maria devastated Puerto Rico in late September of last year. Is it the island that was hit by a storm two weeks earlier?
Some 3,000 homes that were damaged by Maria are still covered in blue FEMA tarps, according to the island’s government.
But no census has been conducted to determine how many roofs are truly still damaged, whether draped in a tarp or not. Marrero estimates – roughly, he said, but conservatively — that the number may be closer to 15,000.
Many homes that were ineligible for repairs because they lacked formal title or other documents are now living in new homes. The government-contracted crews that repaired the roofs were so bad that their work was already done.
In the four years since a group of local architects and lawyers founded the nonprofit, it has rebuilt about 130 roofs, with six of them in the first year. Its goal is to scale to 100 annually.
The wood, nails and steel and aluminum panels are often donated by the municipality in which the house they’re repairing is located. The labor that PRoTechos provides is for the purpose of building stronger roofs.
It’s a development of the workforce. Much of its funding comes from a federal grant to train the construction workers Puerto Rico will need to complete the billions of dollars’ worth of post-Maria reconstruction projects that have yet to begin.
The group’s crews are formed by apprentices who learn carpentry on the job and usually acquire enough skill after the three-month program to find work in the construction industry, should they want it.
While we are fixing roofs, we also try to train people from that community so they can help rebuild the community faster in the event of another storm.
We ask ourselves, what is this roof used for? Was it poorly dressed? If you’re in the tropics, you don’t need a jacket. You don’t want to be dressed in shorts if you live in Alaska. And we often find houses that need new or different clothes. When they look at the house they’re working on, they feel a sense of responsibility to dress it in the way that it needs. To do the work well for the families that live there.”
“I spent Hurricane Maria in a house that my grandfather built. We didn’t know how it was going to do, and we were kind of nervous, because it’s on stilts. The house was always stable. We could not hear the wind, but we were safe and the house was stable. I want to build my own house. This learning is going to help me do that.
“I’ve also been dreaming to be a handyperson for the LGBTQ community. It’s hard to find a safe place to live in the trans community. And many trans people won’t call for repairs because they’re scared to let someone into their house, so I want to be able to help my community in that way. I wouldn’t rule out the chance of getting a job in this. I’m open to what this path will bring.
“Your home is so important, because each day you wake up and the first thing you do is look around at your surroundings. And if you don’t feel good about what you see, then you lose the motivation to go out and work to improve your life.”
How often do blue tarps disappear? When did they stop and rebuild? What happened when they were there? Why are they still there?
We still see houses with blue tarps. Sometimes we see people with materials that are okay but they don’t have the labor force to build a roof, or they don’t know how to rebuild a roof. They are just stopping leaks and not really solving the problem.
Five years ago, there were many houses with damaged roofs. I would call it unbelievable if I wasn’t living through it and seeing it. It is pretty upsetting. That was one of the reasons I applied and joined. If they are not centered or located in a specific place, they are forgotten. Even the municipality might not pay much attention. The program is definitely filling a need for the island and the community.