San Juan tenant of 27 years awaits a new home after an eviction stalls in Urbanización Roosevelt
A court marshal went on Thursday, October 8, 2026, to evict an 85-year-old woman from the two-bedroom house she has rented for 27 years in Urbanización Roosevelt, San Juan, and the eviction was not carried out because several government agencies did not arrive, elvocero.com reported. After nearly two hours of waiting the eviction was called off, with no home to move her and her three dogs to, claridadpuertorico.com reported.
By the next day the Municipality of San Juan offered her temporary housing for her and her dogs while the Puerto Rico Department of Housing looks for a permanent home, El Vocero reported. The housing secretary, who visited the house, said she had no active case at the agency.
How the case got here
The dispute with her landlord began in January, when the landlord stopped collecting the rent, Claridad reported. The San Juan Court of First Instance ruled against her in April, by default, according to Claridad, and El Vocero dated the eviction order to March.
The day before the eviction, the Family Department asked the court for more time so she could find a home, and the judge denied it, Claridad reported. Her lawyer, from a community legal clinic of the Interamerican University law school, told reporters the clinic is not contesting the eviction but how the agencies handled the help she was owed.
She pays $475 a month in rent and has looked for another place since March without success, El Vocero reported. Her income from Social Security and a small pension comes to about $900 a month, according to Claridad.
What renting costs in San Juan
Her rent is close to what San Juan's renters pay on the whole. The median contract rent across the city's occupied rental housing is $488 a month, from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey, according to the San Juan market profile. That measure excludes utilities and counts subsidized and long-standing leases.
A new lease costs far more. Landlords in San Juan were asking a median of $1,861 a month in September 2026, nearly four times her rent and more than twice her monthly income.
El Vocero also cited the most recent homeless count, which puts at about 930 the number of people without a safe home, 26.6% of them over 55.