Atlas News

Loíza moves ahead with a three-phase repair of a collapsed Parcelas Suárez road; 87% of the town's land is in a FEMA flood hazard area

The Municipality of Loíza is pressing ahead with the restoration of a road on Calle 3 in the Parcelas Suárez community, where part of the roadway collapsed from coastal erosion, the mayor said on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the San Juan Daily Star reported. She also urged the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) to expedite its broader coastal erosion mitigation project for the area.

Source: sanjuandailystar.com and RED Atlas

Rehabilitating vacant and abandoned properties is one of the most immediate and cost-effective answers to Puerto Rico's housing crisis, the head of a housing nonprofit wrote in an opinion column in El Vocero on October 20, 2026. The organisation invests an average of $75,000 per rehabilitation, has turned a home around in as little as five weeks, and completed 14 units in the last three years without government funds, the column says.

Source: El Vocero and RED Atlas

Hormigueros lines up more than 300 abandoned houses for a land bank in a town with fewer than 20 homes listed for sale

Hormigueros has inventoried more than 300 abandoned houses and is setting up a land bank so that residents of the municipality can buy them at their appraised value, the mayor told wapa.tv on October 20, 2026. Interested buyers apply at the municipal tax office (CRIM) in Hormigueros and must meet its requirements, the outlet reported; the mayor said Hormigueros is the first municipality with a land bank and that the process is meant to be transparent.

Source: WAPA TV and RED Atlas

Naranjito weighs federal funds to finish its unfinished coliseum or clear the site for apartments

Naranjito is asking the Puerto Rico Department of Housing whether federal CDBG-MIT mitigation funds can pay to finish a coliseum that has stood unfinished for more than 20 years, and if not, the municipality will demolish it, with more than 100 affordable apartments as one option for the site, El Vocero reported on October 1, 2026.

Source: El Vocero and RED Atlas

Yauco broke ground on September 30, 2026, on a $2,581,481.50 remodel of the parking lot of its Plaza del Mercado, on Calle Comercio in the town centre, and the governor handed over four property titles and a new home to a family that lost theirs in the southern earthquakes, WIPR and NotiCel reported.

Source: WIPR and RED Atlas

Puerto Rico's electricity rate rose by a net 5.2848 cents per kilowatt-hour for the October to December quarter, an adjustment approved by the Energy Bureau, and on Thursday, October 1, 2026, the resident commissioner in Washington blamed the government for the increase and proposed four relief measures, El Vocero and Telemundo Puerto Rico reported.

Source: El Vocero and RED Atlas

The mayors of Camuy, Hatillo and Lares signed municipal resolutions on Sunday, October 18, 2026, asking that ownership and management of the Río Camuy Cave Park be transferred from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) to the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, with a public-private partnership to rehabilitate it, El Vocero and Telemundo Puerto Rico reported. The park has been closed since Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017.

Source: El Vocero and RED Atlas

The Vega Baja Community Land Bank has completed its first property sale: a vacant one-story concrete house at 23 Calle José Julián Acosta in downtown Vega Baja, sold for $50,000 to a local resident who must rehabilitate it and rent it as affordable housing for at least five years, the San Juan Daily Star reported on October 20, 2026.

Source: sanjuandailystar.com and RED Atlas

enr.com reported on October 14, 2026, that the emergency repair of a failing embankment on PR 110 at KM 10.2 in Moca, Puerto Rico, was named its 2026 Texas & Southeast Best Project in Specialty Construction.

Source: enr.com and RED Atlas

PR Footwear, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Belleville Boot Company, will make military boots at the former Eagle Industries del Caribe plant in Lares and plans to create up to 300 full-time jobs over the next three years, sanjuandailystar.com reported on October 6, 2026. The Lares plant and a second facility in San Sebastián will be the company's first manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico, according to the outlet.

Source: sanjuandailystar.com and RED Atlas

The rehabilitation of the Maricao Fish Hatchery, closed for nine years since Hurricane María, is moving forward with $13,195,957.41 in obligated funds, elvocero.com reported on October 4, 2026. During a visit to the site, the House Speaker, a state representative, the mayor of Maricao and an undersecretary of Puerto Rico's Department of Natural and Environmental Resources discussed where the project stands.

Source: El Vocero and RED Atlas