Back in February I posted that the Government of Haiti had secured 5 parcels of land from private land owners; well almost 3 months later only one parcel of land, Corail Cesselesse, which is about 18,000 acres. It has been outfitted and prepared for new residents, roughly 6,000 families. Aid groups complained that it was ill organized, they only had a week to build the temporary settlement and outfit it with water spigots and latrines. There have been calls for a more organized plan with the establishment of the 4 other sites.
But problems and questions remain. There are some 250,000 residents in need of shelter but the land secured can only accommodate about half of them. Aid groups are calling on the government to utilize eminent domain and quickly. The rainy season is HERE. Many people are living in flood prone zones and to make matters worst tensions are rising. The homeless are residing on private lands, some have been threatened with eviction and some are living on school grounds were administrators, teachers and students alike are eager to resume classes to get back to a "normal life." Its clear that an easy fix is not apparent to decision makers. It is hard to predict what will happen next,however my guess is people will languish in the flimsy camps in harms way for many more weeks to come. Let us hope I am wrong.
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