Puerto Rico’s government announced compulsory visits to hundreds of public housing projects to check residents and their living conditions, according to the Public Housing Administration.
Public Housing Administration Director Juan Rosario Hernández said more than a dozen agents will inspect a total of 56,000 units at 328 projects across the U.S. territory by the first week of March. Hernández made the comments to Tele11, a local news station.
The inspections are set to include checks on the welfare of children and elderly people, Hernández said. Agents will also determine whether occupants are authorized to live in the units.
The government’s announcement came a week after neighbors in Puerto Rico’s biggest public housing project denounced alleged subhuman conditions in an apartment where a mother and her two children were living. The investigation into those allegations is ongoing, and authorities said the family involved has fled.
The Public Housing Administration seized 44 units last August that it said were illegally occupied. The administration said the seizures occurred while thousands of people were on the waiting list for affordable housing.
Authorities also said some public housing units are used for drug trafficking operations, according to the announcement.