UN soldier watches over Camp Jean Marie Vincent, the largest camp in Port au Prince with some 50,000 residents, photo Roger Annis
By Yolanda Cole, The Georgia Straight, July 19, 2011
A year and a half after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, the country is still facing a housing crisis, according to a Vancouver resident who recently returned from a trip there. Haiti Solidarity B.C. member Roger Annis and two other volunteers from the Canada Haiti Action Network spent time in Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel between June 20 and 30.
While they observed some progress in what was the worst-hit area of the earthquake zone, Annis said the big picture remains “very troubling”.
This article appears on the website of the Georgia Straight, the weekly news and entertainment print newspaper in Vancouver BC.
Depending on estimates, between 300,000 and 650,000 people are still living in the camps established for people displaced by the earthquake, he noted. There are also significant numbers of Haitians who are returning to unsafe homes.
“Because of either the slow pace of the reconstruction, or people losing faith, they’re moving back into the damaged buildings,” he told the Straight in an interview.
According to Annis, the earthquake worsened what was already a chronic housing crisis in Haiti before the disaster hit. “Anytime you look at a deeper study of what’s happened to people after the earthquake, you just come up with this enormous social crisis that was already there when the earthquake happened,” he said. “And 18 months later, not much is being done to resolve that.”
A report released by the Brussels-based non-governmental organization International Crisis Group in June also painted a bleak picture of post-earthquake recovery in Haiti. “Since the earthquake killed approximately 250,000 and forced an estimated 1.5 million into camps, government policies on resettlement and housing have been mostly lacking,” the report read. “In their absence, rampant evictions – without due process and tenable housing alternatives – are forcing unplanned returns.”
According to the ICG report, the earthquake destroyed over 105,000 homes in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and damaged another 208,164. More than 1,000 emergency camps are still spread across the country, the majority on makeshift sites that fail to meet international humanitarian standards. “Living conditions are harsh due to overcrowding and inadequate sanitation,” the report read. “Escaped prisoners and armed gangs have infiltrated several camps, adding insecurity to the challenges, particularly for women and girls, who are increasingly victims of sexual violence.”
Annis and his delegation toured about 10 of the camps for displaced people, including one called Jean Marie Vincent in Port-au-Prince, which houses several tens of thousands of Haitians. The dominant sentiment among the people there, he said, was a sense of frustration with the pace of recovery. “They want shelter from the rain, to start with, but they want a plan for housing,” he said. “That’s what they all told us – where’s the plan for housing?”
Some Haitians living in displacement camps are also starting to face threats of dislocation, Annis noted. “This is beginning to happen more and more, and it’s coming either from the municipal offices, or it’s coming from people that are claiming to own the land people are squatting on, and they want them off,” he said.
According to the ICG report, about 234,000 people were evicted from 247 sites between mid-June 2010 and early March 2011.
Annis believes a Haitian housing authority, or “super agency” is needed in order to build housing on a mass scale. “If you look at countries in history that have embarked on a significant housing programs, including in Canada, you have a major government agency that has powers and acts on them, and nothing like that exists in Haiti,” he said.
Annis argued that lack of basic political structure is the root of the problem. “It’s been…almost four months since Martelly was selected, or elected...and he still hasn’t created a government,” said Annis, referring to new Haitian president Michel Martelly.
“We’ve had decades of undermining of national government and of public services and public institutions in Haiti, and we’re seeing the result today,” he added.
Annis said while there is a heavy presence of international NGOs helping with the recovery effort in Haiti, he argued the problem remains “a lack of coordination”.
“We’ve just got this patchwork aid thing going on,” he said. “The big concern is that the aid money’s going to dry up. There’s only so long the money’s going to keep flowing. and of course the world begins to ask, well we spent three or four billion already, and how much more could we be expected to spend?”
Despite the critical housing situation, Annis said Haitians remain hopeful for better conditions. “People in Haiti have no choice but to fight for that, and they have a history of doing it, so hope springs eternal there, despite it all,” he said.
Annis will outline the findings of his delegation at a public event hosted by the Vancouver and District Labour Council at the Maritime Labour Center this evening (July 19).