Gabriela Rojas-LeBron
The New Face of Gentrification in Puerto Rico and it's Effects on Local Displacement and Puerto Rican Livelihood
Photo credit: Adriana De Jesús Salamán / Twitter
BY: Gabriela Rojas-LeBron
UPDATED: March 7, 2024 | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: March 7, 2024
Puerto Rico, one of 14 territories of the United States, has seen a growing number of wealthy outsiders moving to the Island in the past decade. According to a study by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, about 4,500 individuals and businesses relocated from the mainland United States to Puerto Rico from 2012 to 2019; this number has only continued to rise.
Since 2012, the Puerto Rican government has offered wealthy Americans a rare deal: move to Puerto Rico, pay no taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, or crypto assets all while living on a beautiful island in the Caribbean and maintaining their US citizenship.
Under Act 60, the combination of Acts 20 and 22 which were passed in 2012 with hopes of improving the economy, these outsiders – mainly investors, vouchers, and capitalists – can move to Puerto Rico and potentially reduce their current federal income tax of ~39.6% to a 0% – 4% income tax rate. Thousands of high-net-worth individuals have moved to the island with hopes of profiting from these tax breaks.
Accompanying this surge of outsiders entering the island, there have also been waves of incredibly intrusive gentrification in numerous communities and displacement of local Puerto Ricans.
“You have rich people, mostly from outside of Puerto Rico, that in some cases are buying entire blocks or three, four, [or] five buildings at the same time,” says Federico Cintrón-Moscoso, an educator, researcher, and community organizer born in San Juan, Puerto Rico who is the program director at El Puente, a human rights organization based in New York and Puerto Rico.
A street in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico and the town most affected by outsider gentrification and development. Photo credit: Spencer Platt—Getty Images
Most of these investors who move to the island, or choose to invest from the mainland, buy and remodel properties, eventually reselling them at substantially higher prices. These properties are usually made into expensive vacation rentals that can cost travelers up to hundreds of dollars per night. Property prices around Puerto Rico have been driven up to unfathomable rates because of these newly owned properties.
“One of the biggest challenges to rent [is that] prices keep going up but the salary and the power of people to buy and rent houses stays the same,” says Moscoso.
Renting and owning property in Puerto Rico has never been easy. Still, this significant rise in property prices has proven to be very challenging for locals and has resulted in mass displacement of Puerto Ricans all around the island, many of whom make less than 2 times what these properties are being resold for. For perspective, the average household income is about $38,227 (2022), individuals from the ages of 25-65 on average make less than $30,000 a year, there is an unemployment rate of 9%, and about 41.7% of Puerto Ricans are living in poverty; the median listing home price in the capital city of San Juan was $905,000 in January of 2024.
“People have to leave those places and move to other areas or even go to the U.S.,” says Moscoso. There has been an exodus of Puerto Ricans who have left the island due to rising prices of property and living with millions leaving for the mainland United States since these waves of gentrification have hit the island. “I have two friends of mine who are professionals, one of them works in movies here in Puerto Rico and one of them is a nurse. They have been looking for places to rent for the past three months. It's been very difficult for them to find any place to live. These are people who have money [and] who have jobs! And this is happening in most parts of the island.”
An all-black rendition of the Puerto Rican flag, representing freedom and independence, in Old San Juan, has become a popular tourist attraction.
These waves of gentrification are not just affecting properties; there has been a concerning effect on Puerto Rican culture, leaving many locals worried that Puerto Rico will soon be an island not for Puerto Ricans, but for tourists.
“More and more you are starting to see areas where they don't speak Spanish in Puerto Rico. When you go [into an establishment, normally a restaurant or bar] and you speak Spanish, someone replies to you in English and says “I'm sorry can you please speak in English so I can serve you?” Moscoso says. This is a very common experience for many Puerto Ricans living in cities like San Juan where gentrification and displacement are rampant issues affecting communities. He goes on to describe these experiences further: “The stores they open, the things that they sell, the music they play, all these symbols and things that don’t represent the local culture but they also don't invite locals to experience [it]. They are made to exclude Puerto Ricans from being in those spaces.”
Despite the challenges they are facing, there is still hope among many Puerto Ricans for a future where the right to proper housing access is prioritized. There is hope of possible changes in government with the upcoming election for governor in November 2024 that could bring about more representation and action against the injustices occurring around the island. A great deal of locals, however, have taken these issues into their own hands.
There have been numerous waves of resistance against this gentrification where Puerto Ricans have made a point to establish their culture in places where it has no longer become welcome. “There's an effort to really showcase and stamp the Puerto Rican identity on activities that maybe before it wouldn't seem so explicit. Because now we have to,” Moscoso exclaims. This resistance has taken many forms but he mentioned one of the most creative forms of protest: art. “You see it in different ways. [There are] more showings of Bomba y Plena, one of Puerto Rico’s traditional forms of music. You see more cultural activities like local markets and concerts or performances that are showcasing and discussing these issues, integrating art and culture into it.”
Puerto Ricans have also taken to the streets of their towns with more traditional forms of protest, calling for “gringos to go home” and for Puerto Rico to be a land for Puerto Ricans, not tourists and other outsiders.
“Throughout every wave of displacement, there's always resistance… local resistance. You get strongholds of culture and practices that fight that displacement and fight that colonization of Puerto Rico. You are [always] going to find locals who are fighting back.”
“Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans” written on a banner at a protest against gentrification in San Juan. Photo credit: Adriana De Jesús Salamán / Twitter