GLORIA Cuevas thought she would live forever in her pink, century-old house on Puerto Rico’s west coast – but then her landlord decided to transform the home into an Airbnb.
Cuevas left her home – now purple and split in two – and her beloved city for another further south, forced out by the rising cost of living and an explosion of short-term rentals on the US Caribbean island territory.
Puerto Rico – long a draw for sun-worshipping tourists – is also a hotspot for foreign investment and offers tax incentives to attract outsiders.
“At first, I couldn’t come back here,” said Cuevas, 68, gazing at the home she once made her own. “It made me feel sad and angry at the same time.”
Cuevas’s experience is becoming an all too familiar tale across the island, where signs promote mansions for sale, and the Airbnb logo is plastered on homes where locals once lived.
Intensifying Puerto Rico’s gentrification are laws that encourage primarily wealthy mainland Americans to move there in exchange for preferential tax treatment.
The programme originally enacted in 2012 was meant to spur economic growth and attract investment on the island, an unincorporated territory under US control since 1898.
Those relocating must acquire residency and buy property to keep the significant incentives – but many Puerto Ricans as well as some US lawmakers say this is driving up housing prices and encouraging tax evasion.
“Colonialism kills us, it suffocates us,” Cuevas said. “It’s a global theme. It’s a class war.”
Ricki Rebeiro, 30, moved to San Juan more than a year ago, bringing his packaging and marketing business that services drug companies with him.
He said that basing his work in Puerto Rico saves his company millions of dollars annually, and that he pays zero personal income tax – what amounts to the equivalent of “a whole second income” that he says he tries to reinvest locally.
“I believe that the locals are probably upset that they’re not reaping the same benefits of somebody like me,” said the entrepreneur, whose family is based in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
The system is “unfair”, Rebeiro said, “but I also don’t believe that I should be the one to blame for that. I didn’t structure the programme.”
Puerto Ricans in recent years have slammed their government for what they say is a hyperfocus on outsiders at the expense of locals, as the rich – including people like the famous content creator-turned-boxer Jake Paul – move in.
In Cabo Rojo, a seaside city about an hour’s drive south of Rincon on the island’s western coast, some residents are taking the matter into their own hands.
During a recent canvassing effort, a group of activists urged their neighbours to protest a project called Esencia, which aims to build a US$2bil luxury resort and residential development on coastal land.
Dafne Javier said her family goes back generations in this area – her great-grandfather was the last mayor in the municipality under Spanish occupation, and the first under US rule.
The 77-year-old said the Esencia project would “totally change the landscape”, adding that it would create a gated town within a town and predicting that wealthy newcomers “won’t mix with us.”
Protesters noted that the planned development would be in the vicinity of protected areas.
They say it would destroy the natural habitat of some endangered species, while exacerbating problems with potable water, electricity supply and trash pick-up.
Roberto Ruiz Vargas – chief operating officer of Three Rules Capital, the developer behind Esencia – disputes those notions, and said that “from the outset, our intention has been to develop the land responsibly and sensitively, minimising impact”.
He pointed to plans to power the development primarily with solar energy.
He also said developers were working with both the water authority and the Department of Natural Resources to “address concerns about our water sources” including “independent systems that will reuse rainwater and treated wastewater for irrigation uses”.
Ruiz Vargas said developers estimate the project will directly create more than 4,000 jobs, and thousands more across the island.
However, protesters said an influx of wealthy new residents will exacerbate inequality.
Christopher Powers is married to a Puerto Rican with whom he has children, and has lived in Cabo Rojo for 20 years. He vehemently opposes the project.
“They have no idea what they’re destroying, and if they do have an idea what they’re destroying, then they should be ashamed,” he said of the developers.
“Not only is it ecologically destructive, not only will it be an economic disaster for those of us who live here, but it’s also against the sort of spirit or values of the Caborojinos.”
Cuevas is hopeful her story and others like it will crystallise for her fellow Puerto Ricans what they stand to lose.
“We have to keep fighting. We have to educate our youth. Have you heard of Bad Bunny?” she said, referring to the Puerto Rican global superstar whose music and current residency in San Juan has amplified discussion of gentrification and cultural dilution, on the island and beyond.
“This is ours,” Cuevas said. “We’re not going to leave.” — AFP
