P.R. Laws tit. 17, § 115
All housing authorities shall have all the powers necessary and convenient for undertaking and carrying out urban renovation plans and projects, including the power to acquire and sell or lease property, issue bonds and other debentures, borrow money, and accept subsidies from the federal government or other sources, and exercise such other powers as are granted by §§ 101—119 of this title to housing authorities with relation to redevelopment projects. With relation to the planning and development of renovation plans or projects, all housing authorities and municipalities, and all public and private officers, agencies and entities shall have every right, power, privilege, and immunity which they have with relation to redevelopment plans and projects, just as if all the provisions of such sections which are applicable to a redevelopment plan or project were also applicable to an urban renovation plan or project; Provided, That for these purposes the word “redevelopment”, as it appears in such sections (except in this section and in the definition of “redevelopment project”, in § 103 of this title), shall mean urban renovation, and that the phrases “blighted areas” and “areas in the process of becoming blighted”, as they appear in such sections (except in this section and in the definitions in § 103 of this title), shall mean areas which are blighted, run-down, or in the process of becoming blighted; and Provided, further, That this clause shall not change the corporate name of any housing authority or the short title of §§ 101—119 of this title, nor shall it amend any section thereof. In addition to the surveys and plans which the housing authorities are empowered to carry out, all housing authorities are hereby expressly and specifically empowered to carry out (i) plans for the developing of voluntary programs for the repair and rehabilitation of buildings and improvements, and (ii) plans for enforcing the laws, codes, and regulations relating to land-use, the use and occupation of buildings and improvements, and the compulsory repair, rehabilitation, demolition, and clearance of buildings and improvements. The housing authorities are hereby authorized to develop, submit to tests, render reports on, and make demonstrations of methods and techniques for the prevention and clearance of blighted areas and urban blight.
History —May 9, 1947, No. 97, p. 226, added as § 18 on June 20, 1955, No. 82, p. 302, § 1.