Acquiring Abandoned School

There are different methods to acquiring an abandoned school. However for any method, it is important for organizations to demonstrate to the municipality that they are committed to obtaining a vacant school building and prepared with a plan on how to sustain their project. This section explains the different forms of ownership of abandoned schools and describes the different methods for obtaining an abandoned school.

Organizing a Greater Social Movement

Beyond starting the legal acquisition process, it is essential for communities to come together to show they’re committed to managing the abandoned school. For example, before La Goyco submitted their proposal to the municipality, the community had already been occupying the building to distribute necessities after the hurricane. Their efforts also consisted of gatherings outside the building to acquire media attention. In addition, they obtained over 500 signatures from local residents agreeing with the idea to obtain the abandoned school building. Their social movement efforts and commitment largely improved their chances of having their proposal approved.

Photo of La Goyco cleaning the school before they acquired the building(via La Goyco Instagram)

Additional Resources

Below is a link to a Community Guide created by Centro para la Reconstruction del Habitat that has examples of community requests to the state for the transfer of ownership of an abandoned school.

(Guia Comunitaria para la Recuperacion de Espacios en Desuso)

Forms of Ownership

When attempting to obtain a vacant school building, it is important to note the different forms of ownership. It is also important to note that the length of any acquisition process is dependent on whether an abandoned school building is owned by the state or the school’s municipality. Schools that are owned by the state involve completing a transfer request, proposal, and more, whereas municipality-owned schools may or may not involve these steps in their process.

Contractual Agreement (Commonly $1)

More commonly, the municipality is willing to sell the school building to organizations through a contract for about $1. Obtaining full ownership of the school is ideal because there are less restrictions to do work on the building by completing major renovations. Additionally this form of ownership also allows the municipality the ability to take back full ownership of the school building at any moment if any major companies are willing to purchase it.

Owner (Full Ownership)

In very few situations do municipalities or the state department of Puerto Rico give full ownership of a abandoned school building. Despite how uncommon this situation is, this ownership allows eliminates all contractual limitations that would otherwise be imposed by a $1 Renting Agreement and also allows organizations the ability to rent their own space as a way to finance their center.