Puerto Rico Senator Ángel Toledo López on Monday called on Resident Commissioner in Washington Pablo José Hernández to explain why he failed to include in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act an amendment to fix income-limit inequality for families applying for public housing and Section 8 vouchers on the island. Toledo López said Hernández filed bill H.R. 1696 in February 2025 but the law, which passed Congress and was signed on July 11, 2026, contained none of its 59 sections addressing Puerto Rico’s income limits.
Since January 17, 2014, federal law has excluded Puerto Rico from using the federal poverty line to determine income limits for extremely low-income families, who get priority for at least 75% of Section 8 vouchers and 40% of public housing admissions. Toledo López noted the federal poverty line for a family of four is $33,000, while San Juan’s extremely low-income limit remains $12,400, raised to about $20,000 administratively by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2023, a protection he warned could be reversed.
With Puerto Rico’s minimum wage of $10.50 an hour, a full-time worker earns $21,840 and can lose priority. According to figures from the Public Housing Administration cited by the senator, 20,142 families wait for units in 328 public housing projects across 77 towns or for a Section 8 voucher. He demanded Hernández make public his full record of efforts between February 2025 and June 2026.