El Nuevo Día: more than 70 percent of HUD remains undisbursed

On February 23, 2026, at 11:10 p.m., El Nuevo Día reports, by José A. Delgado, that 8.5 years after María more than 70 percent of HUD reconstruction and mitigation funds remain undisbursed. The government has until 2029 to spend, 13 years after the catastrophe. It is a slow-spend story. This note does not turn it into a theft headline. Slow spend is not theft. Undisbursed is not undocumented.

Beside it, HUD's February 1 table leaves 5.1 percent on the electrical grant and 45.3 on unmet needs: 5.1 versus 45.3. Those are two versions of HUD's pace. No winner is chosen. They are not averaged. Delgado's 70 and the table's 5.1 are not fused. The 5.1 is energy. The 70 is Delgado's count of reconstruction and mitigation. This note does not rewrite that table. Five percent is not all of María. Eight and a half years are not thirteen. 2029 is the spend-by date Delgado prints, not a sentence. This desk leaves the 70 next to the 5.1 and does not declare a pace winner. This desk prints both figures and does not fuse them.

What remains is 70 undisbursed, a 2029 deadline, and two HUD paces. A reader who wants Delgado on the 23rd has the El Nuevo Día URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: El Nuevo Día. https://www.elnuevodia.com/corresponsalias/washington-dc/notas/mas-del-70-de-los-fondos-de-vivienda-federal-para-reconstruccion-no-han-sido-desembolsados/