The Puerto Ricans illegally occupying land to resist displacement

foreign [Music] there are a lot of abandoned buildings in Puerto Rico it's not pretty and it's a real problem for communities some say you have to invite wealthy investors who have the money to buy these properties and hopefully fix them investors this is what opportunity looks like that's opportunity the hot one big one it's a trade office no profit off them have you ever walked into a house and it smells like cat pee really bad you know what that smells like to me money baby money others disagree with that approach they say the investors coming in are gentrifying their communities and displacing them and they say the people already living there need these spaces to grow food for housing to provide services to their neighbors so they're occupying them they're not asking for permission they're going in cleaning these spaces making use of them and in some cases they get to keep them is the story is about Puerto Ricans illegally occupying land and buildings to fight displacement foreign [Music] what happened next is what tends to happen when communities get together they start conspiring about how to make their neighborhood better they set their eyes on the piece of land next to this vacant House Hernando says it was full of clutter it is then they started thinking of the possibilities and they came up with the idea of growing food on this land they figured it's what they needed most especially after what they had just been through with hurricane Maria the worse this time they did ask for permission from the owner a woman who had inherited the house from her mother what followed were a couple of years of a lot of work to transform this space they managed to turn this into this [Music] food waste and used it to grow crops then they will share the Harvest School field trips it became a meeting point for the community [Music] and then they found out someone had bought the land an investor from New York Lucy lives next door her cousin was the owner of the house [Music] Lucy says there were several neighbors interested in buying the house and the land when they found out her cousin had sold it to an outside investor for 125 000 the community was not happy this changed things now that we're occupying a piece of land that belonged to someone who had different plans for the space she told them she wasn't selling and so did the other neighbors foreign [Music] but the community says he hasn't tried to kick them out instead he agreed to rent the land to them for one dollar a month just to have it on paper until he decides what to do with it Arnaldo says the community wants to collectively buy the space in the meantime the uncertainty has dampened the mood the community has backed off from putting so much effort into a space they might lose but Ronaldo hopes they can pick it back up and return it to its Glory Days awaken hey everybody look at this I'm in love I'm in love and I don't care who knows it the investor is buying in places like santurce are attracted by very generous tax breaks I paid 1.4 million in income tax and I said never again we're going to Puerto Rico up there's a tax break that only applies to investors moving to Puerto Rico not locals there are tax credits for investing in tourism development we love these small little guest house because they're easy to run produce massive massive cash flows and there's a 15-year tax exemption for new development and distressed areas 98 of Puerto Rico has been declared distressed only in Puerto Rico guys this is absolutely the dream scenario the government argues this will bring much needed investment look at this beauty and Rio PA address but in some cases investors are buying properties and just sitting on them we paid twenty four thousand dollars for it and we did nothing to it flipped it for sixty five thousand dollars and they've done nothing to it and now it's probably worth about two hundred thousand dollars go figure I reached out to all the investors you've seen in these clips but none of them agreed to an on-camera interview hello [Music] Giovanni Roberto is part of a group that occupied this building in kagwas after Hurricane Maria people were hungry and comedora sociales needed a place to feed them they found this building that appeared to be abandoned but with a lot of potential for what they wanted to do so they broke the lock and went in he says what they found inside was disgusting much they started cleaning fixing and cooking they say they've served more than a hundred thousand plates of food since the Hurricane by 2022 they had invested almost 120 thousand dollars between repairs solar panels kitchen equipment but four years in no one had come by to claim the building so they started searching for the title holder and found it was an LLC connected to a real estate company called Morgan read my name is Brian talenbaum I'm the regional director of the Morgan Reed Group here in Puerto Rico Morgan Reed is the same company connected to the purchase of the oceanfront School in San Juan that I told you about in this video brand Tenenbaum is one of the executives of the company and the person called says they had to negotiate with science the corporation bought the building in 2015 for a hundred and eight thousand dollars they sat on it for seven years and we're now selling it for more than triple commerciales didn't have that kind of money but they've kept using the building anyway once a month they give out free groceries to more than 150 families in kaguas they have free weekly acupuncture and massages for the community ping pong for the Youth and they host a market where they sell produce at a low cost they're trying to bring life to an urban center that looks like this that's why his group is also occupying buildings foreign has now claimed eight spaces they have turned what used to be abandoned buildings into an art gallery a second-hand clothing boutique a museum a theater and a food garden and they have already identified a couple dozen more spaces they want to acquire by 20 30. [Music] in some of these spaces has reached an agreement with the owners at the gallery they now pay rent thanks to donations from the yoga classes they offer where they have the food Garden one of The Heirs gave them informal permission to use the space and the building where they have the museum well the owners of that building try to evict them but they didn't succeed so now they're open to either renting or selling to Urban in the meantime the group is turning the upper floors into housing for people who need it if frying is already living in one of the rooms in exchange for working the food Garden I asked them how he feels about illegally occupying the building first Neighbors in the area were not thrilled to see them occupying spaces but they've been winning people over translates to the hairy ones referring to their long hair and beards it's a stereotype that has followed them since their University days all attended the public university of Puerto Rico all three of them participated in the University strikes more than a decade ago at the time students were protesting higher University costs [Applause] the protests gain International attention because they turned violent [Music] foreign [Applause] the strikes lasted a couple of years and they say it was a lesson in organizing continues the administration that we're fighting against in 2010 and 2011 was the same one that approved the tax break now famous for inviting wealthy investors to move to Puerto Rico Luis Fortuna was the governor who signed it into law these are type papers that individuals they don't sit around watching TV all day they want to go out and they're investing in the local economy Brian tanabaum from Morgan Reed benefits from the tax break he didn't agree to an on-camera interview either sociales went on the news collected signatures and made noise on social media saying they deserve to keep the building after months of negotiation Morgan Reed agreed to sell it for 187 thousand dollars about half of what they had listed it foreign the group raised the money thanks to Grants from different foundations and in December they could finally say they held the title to the building they call it El cam where the kawas mutual Aid Center [Music] [Applause] [Applause] thank you foreign foreign [Music] thank you so much for watching The Real News Network where we lift up the voices stories and struggles that you care about most and we need your help to keep doing this work so please tap your screen now subscribe and donate to the real News Network solidarity forever

Channel: The Real News Network

Views: 9,260

Keywords: real news, the real news, real news network, realnews, the real news network, therealnews, trnn, Puerto rico, resistance, tax incentives, developers, capitalism, neoliberalism, occupation

Id: XZxWRaxqxGI

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023