Gentrification and the Housing Crisis in Puerto Rico

Author: Gabrielle Meyers, MPP

March 17, 2026

[Image Source: Brigada PDT]

At first blush, short-term rentals (STRs) such as Airbnb seem like an important part of the Puerto Rican economy. They create jobs and generate tourist revenue. In 2022, roughly 40 percent of all visitors to Puerto Rico stayed in an STR. STR visitors tend to stay longer (5.7 days on average) than visitors who stay in hotels (2.7 days). According to one study, if every STR in Puerto Rico were booked every single day, with an overall impact of $200 per guest per day, Puerto Rico would reap $6.4 billion in benefits each year. 

Unfortunately, this economic benefit comes at the cost of the native Puerto Ricans. STRs have been found to increase median rent and housing prices. Renters face evictions as landlords want to replace their long-term rentals with STRs that could provide more profit. As gentrification worsens, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable housing in Puerto Rico. Gentrification poses an ongoing threat to people’s right to housing.

The Right to Housing

The right to housing is outlined in several documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (which the US has signed but not ratified; Article 11), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Article 14), and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Article 5). Though the right to housing does not necessarily require a country to provide housing for every single person, countries are required to develop a national housing strategy. This strategy works to fully realize the right to housing and to pass legislation to help people obtain and maintain housing. This can be done by constructing public housing, passing subsidies or rental control regulations, or partnering with private corporations. 

Specifically, the right to housing is the right to adequate housing. According to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), adequacy is defined by several characteristics: legal security of tenure, availability of services and facilities, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location, and cultural adequacy. This article will demonstrate that gentrification inhibits several of these characteristics, thereby affecting the right to housing.

Legal Security of Tenure

Essentially, legal security of tenure means legal protection from forced evictions or harassment. Evictions are not inherently a violation of human rights, so long as they are justified, not conducted in a discriminatory manner, and carried out with respect to due process. 

However, this is often not the case for those displaced by gentrification. 

Landlords have a financial incentive to evict their long-term tenants and convert their properties into short-term rentals. For example, during Bad Bunny’s concert run in Puerto Rico, property owners could earn $4,500 per month renting to concert goers or $1,200 per month from tenants. To speed up this process, landlords dramatically increased the rent in the hopes of making a similar profit off of their lower-income tenants or having a legal reason to replace them with wealthier short-term renters. Families in the area reported rent increases exceeding 40 percent within months of the concert announcements. Community organizations found that at least 89 families were forced to move due to rising housing costs, and legal aid organizations reported that there were 67 percent more tenant displacement cases during the residency period compared to 2023.

Furthermore, evictions in gentrifying areas are often conducted without meaningful legal protection. Legal representation is important in eviction proceedings because represented tenants are twice as likely to win their case compared to unrepresented tenants. Legal representation is guaranteed for criminal cases but not for civil suits, so many tenants do not have representation. Without representation, baseless evictions often go through.

Affordability

Housing is considered affordable when it doesn’t compromise a tenant’s ability to satisfy their other basic needs, like food. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, this means that rent does not constitute more than 30 percent of a household’s total income.

STRs have contributed to the housing affordability crisis. One study found that a 10 percent increase in the density of STRs in Puerto Rico has led to a 7 percent increase in the median rent and a 23 percent increase in the price of housing units. 

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, one needed to earn an hourly wage of $9.66 in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market price. In Puerto Rico, the local minimum wage is $8.50 per hour. Even if someone was working 40 hours per week at this rate, they could only afford a one-bedroom apartment. Since most hourly workers do not get 40 hours per week, most rental units are even less affordable. According to the Housing Affordability Index, Puerto Ricans have lost 42 percent of their ability to purchase a residence.

Habitability

Habitability, in this case, refers to the protection against risks to health and well-being due to structural dangers. This includes the accessibility of utilities such as indoor plumbing and electricity, as well as proper temperature control. 

Landlords, however, have a financial incentive to neglect the repairs that ensure the right to habitability so that their low-income tenants will leave due to the unsafe conditions. Landlords can then replace them with STRs or higher-income long-term tenants. They might “neglect” to make the necessary repairs or cut off access to services. This is illegal, but there are not many ways to hold landlords accountable. In gentrifying areas, tenants will not make formal complaints out of fear of retaliation.

Furthermore, the lack of affordable housing options exacerbated by gentrification often results in overcrowding, threatening the safety and health of residents.

Location

Adequate housing must also allow access to social facilities such as jobs, healthcare, and schools. Gentrification leads to displacement. Those who are displaced are unlikely to find a comparably located unit since they are more likely to have been pushed out of a rent-stabilized or otherwise subsidized apartment. This means they have to move further away from previously established jobs, healthcare, and schools. 

As a result of moving further away, they have to pay more for gas and tolls to get to work or find new jobs. People also lose contact with their communities as neighbors are displaced by gentrification. One study found that this phenomenon can result in higher transportation costs, the loss of jobs and income, and declining school performance for children.

Potential Policy Solutions

Although states are not required to build and provide physical housing, they are supposed to ensure that housing remains affordable. They can do this by implementing subsidies, setting up affordable housing programs, or establishing rental control policies. There are a number of policy solutions that could help fortify Puerto Ricans’ right to housing as STRs increase and the housing crisis persists:

• Introducing tenant protections can protect renters from unfounded evictions. For example, rent control has been shown to prevent displacements in 10 to 20 percent of cases compared to properties without rent control protection. Also, giving those most closely affected by gentrification a seat at the table introduces accountability and transparency into the process. It also gives policy makers an opportunity to hear from the community and learn how these programs are working in real time. 

• Capping rent in municipalities with high real estate inflation, based on the average income of that municipality, could give native Puerto Ricans a fighting chance against higher-income tenants. 

• Increasing the room tax for STRs from 7 percent to 11 percent could help reduce the financial incentive for landlords to try to push out their lower-income renters. Furthermore, the government can use the additional revenue to invest in building and subsidizing affordable housing units.

Gentrification is a natural byproduct of the free-market housing economy. However, it is possible to respect human rights in a gentrified neighborhood, though few are working to buffer the effects on renters. Gentrification improves the economic outcomes of an area, but it does so by removing the impoverished people who lived there instead of improving their economic situation. These policy solutions, among others, can improve everyone’s economic prospects while still respecting their right to adequate housing.

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Glossary

• Adequate Housing: the right to live somewhere that meets basic standards of living in security, peace, and dignity

• Affordable Housing: housing that can be attained without compromising one’s ability to fulfill other basic needs, such as food

• Due Process: civil rights that must be respected when pursuing adjudicated matters, including hearing the story from both sides, giving adequate notice before eviction, government representation, and the provision of legal remedies

• Forced Evictions: the permanent or temporary removal against their will from the housing units they occupy without the provision of and access to legal protections

• Gentrification: a process in which an impoverished neighborhood experiences an influx of wealthier people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses. This often results in property values increasing, and the former residents being priced out and displaced

• Habitability: the ability of a housing unit to protect inhabitants from the elements, disease vectors, structural damage, and other threats to tenant safety

• Legal Security of Tenure: guaranteed legal protection against forced evictions, harassment, or other threats 

• Rental Control: official limit on how much a landlord can charge for rent

• Right to Housing: according to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is “the standard of living adequate for the health and well-being,” including, among other things, housing

• Room Tax: an occupancy tax levied on hotels and other short-term lodging businesses

• Short-Term Rentals: furnished properties that are rented for less than 90 days at a time

• Tenant Protections: rules and regulations designed to protect renters from unfair treatment by landlords and managing companies

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References

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3. Coto, D. (2024, February 22). The number of short-term rentals in Puerto Rico has surged. A new report says that’s a problem. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/puerto-rico-airbnb-rentals-regulations-housing-136381cddc355a61beb81cd0a6ce3e14

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7. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of racial discrimination | OHCHR. (n.d.-d). https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-convention-elimination-all-forms-racial

8. International Covenant on Economic, social and cultural rights | ohchr. (n.d.-e). https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights

9. Marcos, C. M., & Mazzei, P. (2022, January 31). The rush for a slice of Paradise in Puerto Rico (published 2022). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/puerto-rico-gentrification.html

10. Report demonstrates short-term rentals are exacerbating Puerto Rico’s housing crisis. National Low Income Housing Coalition. (2023, February 6). https://nlihc.org/resource/report-demonstrates-short-term-rentals-are-exacerbating-puerto-ricos-housing-crisis

11. United Nations. (n.d.). Universal declaration of human rights. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

12. Why are Puerto Ricans being displaced?: 9 millones. RSS. (n.d.). https://www.9millones.com/en/story/que-causa-el-desplazamiento-en-puerto-rico