More than a year after Hurricane Maria struck, nearly all the Puerto Ricans who evacuated to Massachusetts have found permanent housing in the state, according to the state's Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.
An estimated 7,000 evacuees fled to Massachusetts and, the state office said, about 600 families were housed temporarily in hotels and motels. As of early 2019, fewer than 50 families were still without permanent housing.
Jacqueline Bonilla and her family are among those who have settled in the state.
As she spoke to WGBH News through a Spanish interpreter, Bonilla ate snacks with her sons and sat at the pub style table in her new home in Quincy’s Snug Harbor area. It’s a two-bedroom, 1,100 square-foot apartment with a scenic view that overlooks Town River, a nice place Bonilla said she never imagined living in. She is from a town in the mountains of southern Puerto Rico called Coamo, where she and her husband were raising their family. Bonilla said that all changed in September 2017.
“When the hurricane hit, the waters flooded our whole apartment. It destroyed all of our belongings,” Bonilla said. “We didn’t have the resources or the funds to replace or replenish anything that we had.”
Bonilla said after Hurricane Maria, her town, like much of the rest of the island, was in shambles. There was no power, no water, and not much food.
“It was horrible. You didn’t know whether your family was okay, your friends,” Bonilla said. “You knew nothing. There was no communication. Everything was in complete destruction, and you had no knowledge of anyone.”
Bonilla said she was lucky — a cousin already in Massachusetts helped her family make their way here. For more than a year, the Bonillas lived in an extended stay hotel in Braintree, waiting for permanent housing.
Last month, the family moved into the apartment in a public housing complex.
James Marathas, executive director of the Quincy Housing Authority, said any U.S. citizen who becomes homeless because of a natural disaster gets housing priority from the state. Quincy has about 6,000 people on the waiting list for housing, he said.
“Due to their displacement in Puerto Rico and the loss of their homes because of a flood, they became a high preference on the state waiting list, so they moved to the top of the waiting list,” Marathas told WGBH News.
Marathas said the increased number of people in need of housing has added to the challenge of trying to place everyone. So far, the Quincy Housing Authority has housed 25 families displaced from Puerto Rico.
“The people keep walking through the door and they have the stories and they have the crisis, and, you know, you want to help everybody,” Marathas said.
Last year, homelessness numbers in Massachusettsincreased by 14 percent. State officials said that jump was due in large part to the influx of Puerto Rican evacuees.
Bonilla said she and her husband can’t imagine ever returning to Puerto Rico.
“We’re very happy,” Bonilla said. “We are both working, we are pleased to be here and extremely grateful for all the help Quincy Housing has offered us.”
Back in Puerto Rico, the best her family can say about the recovery is that its moving slowly.
