Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development
The Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development is a government agency of Puerto Rico that manages projects to improve and develop "Special Communities of Puerto Rico",. The agency works with other government agencies, as well as with community members, to improve the infrastructure of marginalized communities. Its original founding was in 2001 with Law 1-2001 passed by, then governor, Sila María Calderón. The new entity, employing some of the same people it had under a preceding office, is now responsible for "administering disaster funding". In April 2019, the HUD reported five concerns regarding the ODSEC's ability to fulfill its duties and responsibilities.
OFSA
Law 1-2001, passed on March 1, 2001 created the Oficina del Coordinador General para el Financiamiento Social y la Autogestión, with a mission to eradicate poverty in Puerto Rico. With it, "Special Communities" across Puerto Rico were to be identified and then residents' voices were to be included in the plans for how to improve same. Community members were to become leaders who would spearhead needed socioeconomic changes within their communities.
Special Communities
Special Communities are a list of 742 places in Puerto Rico which were identified as marginalized and needing attention. Established by Sila María Calderón, the eighth governor of Puerto Rico, the idea was to identify and then work to address the high levels of poverty, and lack of resources and opportunities affecting these communities in Puerto Rico. Initially there were 686 places that made the list and by 2008 there were 742 Special Communities. The OFSA agency, as it was then called, believed in solving poverty through a model that involved all community residents, the private sector and government agencies, working together to find solutions to community problems so as to improve quality of life in those communities. In 2016, with a small budget of US$3.761 million, the mission remained the same; to create sustainable development, and empower people to work together on improving infrastructure, housing and the social fabric of their communities.
ODSEC
Despite the Office of Management and Budget recommending the repeal of the original law which created the "Special Communities of Puerto Rico", in early 2017, Governor Ricardo Rosselló created the new government agency, ODSEC, to continue the work which had been started with law 1-2001, and to continue the "Special Communities of Puerto Rico" initiative. Jesús Vélez Vargas, its director stated that the program was evolving with more streamlined ways to bring help to these marginalized communities. In October 2017, a month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico's infrastructure, $41.2 million in federal funds was earmarked for The Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development with a mandate that the funds be distributed, for infrastructure work, to municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants. The new entity, employing some of the same people it had under a preceding office, is now responsible for "administering disaster funding". In April 2019, the HUD reported five concerns regarding the ODSEC's ability to fulfill its duties and responsibilities.
