P.R. Laws tit. 17, § 1454
The Administration shall have the following functions, powers and duties:
(a) To coordinate the efforts for the maintenance, social development and improvement of the quality of life of communities and public housing projects served by the Department and its attached agencies.
(b) To establish mechanisms for effective coordination with the agencies responsible for promoting programs or services for social and community development, vocational rehabilitation and occupational training, in order to provide such services to clients of the communities served, together with the Department of Family Affairs, Sports and Recreation, Labor and Human Resources, among other similar agencies.
(c) To promote community life in housing projects and neighborhood served directly or indirectly by the Department, along with positive values that are edifying and constructive, such as education, work, solidarity, mutual help, savings, fitness, sound administration, sports, culture, safety and social development in existing communities, through local offices or inter-agency agreements with public or private entities.
(d) To promote the creation of consortiums, federations, confederations, associations and nonprofit entities for the ongoing improvement by members of all the communities served by the Department, for the purpose of improving their homes, common areas, green areas, fences, paths, roads, services, to provide better maintenance, cleanliness, ornamentation, safety, and the promotion of the corresponding civic, charitable, sports, recreational and occupational activities, in coordination with other agencies.
(e) To initially serve as a facilitator to organize housing projects and neighborhoods directly or indirectly served by the Department by teaching persons self-sufficiency, and identifying those that can serve as leaders to help to revitalize their communities, so that the Administration may later transfer their personnel to develop other similar communities, successively, in coordination with other agencies.
(f) To promote, in coordination with Housing Development and Improvement Administration, and other state, federal and municipal government agencies, private persons and entities, the creation and development of housing for the elderly, shelters, halfway houses and other initiatives in connection with the use of affordable housing, in order to develop strategies that will help to fight welfare dependence and poverty in Puerto Rico.
(g) To coordinate with other agencies the necessary inter-agency services to promote strategies for the economic development of rural communities and public housing projects, serving as support to the Public Housing Administration and the Housing Development and Improvement Administration.
(h) To coordinate social promotion with the Public Housing Administration, encouraging those residents who meet the necessary requirements to obtain homes of their own and avail themselves of welfare-dependent housing program, so that public housing units may be vacated for the use of indigent persons.
(i) To prepare and implement an action plan in communities served by the Department and its components, combine the efforts of the citizens, the community and its entities, for crime prevention, especially in slums or areas highly susceptible to crime, in coordination with the Puerto Rico Police and other public safety agencies.
(j) To promote mutual help and self-initiative in their affordable housing with programs, in coordination with the Housing Development and Improvement Administration, so that participants may build second stories and housing units for the welfare dependents.
(k) To conduct or contract the development or updating of social-economic studies in the communities served by affordable housing programs in order to encourage residents to get organized, enabling them to acquire their own apartments and housing, and assuming their own control and administration with the support and counsel of the Administration.
History —Sept. 30, 1995, No. 211, § 5.