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Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is trying to clear tent cities

By William Booth,February 19, 2012

(Page 2 of 2)

“This is a dangerous place for a woman,” said Jasmine Charles, with a toddler on her hip. A man standing nearby said that the perimeter of the camp was relatively safe. “But go in deep? They will cut you and rob you, brother.”

More Keynes than Kumbaya

All camps in Haiti are heartbreaking, but the Champ de Mars is the most visible, a monument to endurance and despair, in a public space as prominent in Port-au-Prince as the Mall in Washington.

In the predawn hours of Dec. 6, hundreds of aid workers stole into the sprawling camp and dashed from shanty to shack, waking those inside and asking for the head of the household, to award them a plastic ID bracelet.

Aid officials knew from experience that the population of the camp would double overnight if word got out that the international community was coming bearing gifts.

Now the 5,000 households must decide what they will do. There are three options. The vast majority — probably 90 percent of the camp — are renters. They can accept a $500 rental subsidy and find a place to live. Based on surveys of local real estate, that is enough money to rent a small space for a year.

If the family can get a better deal than $500, they keep the change. The international aid workers do not want to involve themselves as real estate brokers, as that would only send rents spiraling upward.

The families will also get $25 to move their household goods, and they will receive an additional $125 if they remain for two months in the space they rent.

The new model for emptying a camp is more carrot, less stick, but more Keynes than Kumbaya.

The most vulnerable 10 percent — single mothers, the elderly and infirm, those suffering psychological trauma — will get additional services.

To the few families in Champ de Mars who own their homes, the program will give $1,500 to repair a yellow house and $3,500 to demolish a red one and erect a “T-shelter,” of tarp and plywood, a kind of shack 2.0.

For Champ de Mars, something is better than nothing, but expectations are high.

“The $500 is not enough,” said Jose Wildrick, a two-year resident of Champ de Mars. “It is not a good deal.”

Wildrick heard rumors that someone will build cement-block houses for the poor out in the dry cactus wastelands north of the capital. “We want one of those,” he said.

A darker reality

The second component is to revitalize the neighborhoods the camp residents might return to. The Canadian government is paying to reestablish 500 informal camp businesses, train 50 entrepreneurs, create 2,000 construction jobs for debris removal, and rebuild and repair damaged houses.

“If all we do is clear the Champ de Mars, we will have failed,” said Beverley J. Oda, minister of international cooperation for the government of Canada.

The successful emptying of Champ de Mars over the coming months would be a milestone for post-quake Haiti, a part of the promise that “Haiti is open for business,” and that the international community and nongovernmental organizations have not failed.

But the darker reality is this: The Haitian government is spending $30 million to empty six camps. There are 701 more. The Champ de Mars project will cost $20 million for 20,000 people. There would still be close to half a million displaced persons in camps. No country, no group of donor nations, no NGO is considering donating $500 million to Haiti to empty the camps.

The math does not work.

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