NotiCel reports on a long-running issue with families lacking legal property titles across Puerto Rico. The Arroyo Caraballo family in Salinas waited 45 years for the title to their home, which had been ceded by Central de Aguirre to Noel Arroyo Cortés for his work at the corporation. After a fire destroyed the house in April, the lack of a title blocked insurance claims, reconstruction programs, bank loans, and permits to rebuild.
The family has since obtained its title, but the problem remains widespread. Interim Housing Secretary Luis Martínez Román told NotiCel this is common in communities that were given plots in the 1940s and 1950s without formal title grants. The Puerto Rico Planning Society estimated in 2018 that about 260,000 homes were built without permits or legal documentation.
Governor Jenniffer González Colón told NotiCel her administration has issued 2,390 property titles so far. Nineteen of those titles were awarded Monday at the Luis Muñoz Rivera School Theater in Salinas to residents of the Las Mareas sector. No comprehensive government count of families lacking titles currently exists.