Borinquen Made2026-09-17 · Economia
HUD em janeiro: sete fundos de Porto Rico continuam em ritmo lento
On September 17, 2026, for those covering housing and recovery infrastructure in Puerto Rico, the primary document is not a tweet from Fortaleza: it is the CDBG-DR Grant Expenditure Report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as of January 1, 2026. The PDF —CDBG-DR-Grant-Expenditure-Report-1-1-2026.pdf— is published by the Office of Community Planning and Development through the Disaster Recovery Grant Reporting System (DRGR). The columns that the journalist can cite are those from the report itself: Grant Award, Balance, Disaster Year, Grant Age in Months, Expected Spending %, Drawn %, Spending Status, and Amount Behind Pace. Awarded (HUD) ≠ obligated (FEMA) ≠ allotted (Congress) ≠ disbursed to the final beneficiary.
In the Puerto Rico section of the cut-off on January 1, 2026, there are nine grants. Seven are labeled Slow Spender. Two Disaster Year 2022 grants appear On Pace with Drawn % at 0.0% and Expected Spending % at 0.0%. That snapshot does not say that the money "disappeared." It says that HUD measures the pace of drawn against an expected spending % according to the age of the grant. One month later, the report of February 1, 2026 (already addressed in cousin note 756) shows different balances and behind-pace in various lines: that is why it matters to set the cut-off date in the headline and in the lead.
The most voluminous grant in the block is B-18-DP-72-0001: Grant Award of $8,220,783,000, Balance of $4,537,118,630, Disaster Year 2017, 71 months old, Expected Spending 52.5%, Drawn 44.8%, Slow Spender, Amount Behind Pace $634,882,202. It is the large recovery grant associated with 2017 in the DP nomenclature. The Award is the amount of the grant according to HUD; the Balance is the balance that the report publishes; the Drawn % is the drawn percentage. We do not rewrite those three columns as 'already $8.2 billion in roofs have been built'.
Next in size is B-18-DE-72-0001: Grant Award $1,932,347,000, Balance $1,834,254,492, Disaster Year 2017, 41 months, Expected 24.8%, Drawn 5.1%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $381,902,492. The Drawn % of 5.1% at 41 months old is the data that a desk editor must underline: it is not a total work, it is the pace that HUD puts in the Drawn column. The grant B-17-DM-72-0001 shows Award $1,507,179,000, Balance $330,207,547, 88 months, Expected 84.1%, Drawn 78.1%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $90,867,423. There the Drawn % is closer to the expected, but HUD still marks it as Slow Spender because the difference exceeds the threshold of its methodology.
The medium-sized grants of the same block are not anecdotal. B-19-DP-72-0001: Award $277,853,230, Balance $234,087,366, Disaster Year 2017, 54 months, Expected 56.0%, Drawn 15.8%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $111,720,802. B-21-DZ-72-0001: Award $184,626,000, Balance $175,504,535, Disaster Year 2019, 42 months, Expected 28.0%, Drawn 4.9%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $42,592,275. B-19-DF-72-0001: Award $36,424,000, Balance $28,487,258, 2019, 48 months, Expected 41.4%, Drawn 21.8%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $7,124,583. And the oldest grant in the batch, B-08-DI-72-0001 (Disaster Year 2008, 196 months): Award $29,982,887, Balance $2,917,446, Expected 95.0%, Drawn 90.3%, Slow Spender, Behind Pace $1,418,272. Citing 2008 alongside 2017 avoids the myth that “the problem started with María”.
The two On Pace grants from the January cutoff are B-23-DN-72-0001 (Award $165,645,000, Balance $165,644,837, Disaster Year 2022, 18 months, Expected 0.0%, Drawn 0.0%) and B-23-DN-72-0002 (Award $667,000, Balance $667,000, same 18 months, Drawn 0.0%). On Pace with Drawn 0.0% and Expected 0.0% is not a compliment to performance: it means that, at that stage, the methodology still does not require a drawn percentage. Anyone who titles “Puerto Rico is already On Pace” based on those two lines is lying by omission.
How to use the January 1 PDF in writing: (1) download the file with the visible cutoff date —1-1-2026— and do not recycle the Expenditure Report from 2-1-2026 or one from 2024 as if it were this week’s; (2) copy Grant Award, Balance, and Drawn % with those labels in English, because they are the ones from the DRGR system; (3) do not add up the nine awards and call it “the CDBG-DR of Puerto Rico,” because each grant has different public law, action plan, and activities; (4) do not turn Amount Behind Pace into “stolen money”; (5) cross-check the grant number (B-18-DP-72-0001, B-18-DE-72-0001, B-17-DM-72-0001) with the Housing Action Plan and with the QPRs in DRGR. The report does not break down municipalities or repaired roofs.
Comparing January with February is the cousin exercise: in the cutoff of February 1, 2026, the same B-18-DP-72-0001 appeared with Balance $4,497,926,361, Expected 54.0%, Drawn 45.3% and Behind Pace $715,098,735 — figures different from those of January 1. That difference of one month documents movement (or reclassification) in DRGR, not a “miracle” or a “plunder” invented by the editorial team. The current HUD hub updates the package on the first day of each month. This note uses exclusively the Expenditure Report of January 1, 2026 because it is the primary PDF with visible rows for Puerto Rico and is not in the list of URLs already used in 749–762. Cousin: 756. Topic: economy. Primary source: CDBG-DR Grant Expenditure Report, January 1, 2026, on hud.gov.