Some forty thousand people have now received better housing
through this programme, which is part of the overall strategy of
return being pursued by the humanitarian community.
“There has been a major effort to help families who lost their
homes to leave the tents and makeshift structures behind and find
decent and safer places to live on their own,” said Luca
Dall'Oglio, IOM Haiti chief of mission.
“Reaching this 10,000 landmark was part of a cumulative effort
that saw more than 100,000 shelters built in Haiti by the
international community, all in the face of multiple challenges
such as land tenure and the huge quantity of debris which needed to
be removed prior to construction,” he added.
Shelter construction by IOM and numerous other
international agencies has been complemented by a voluntary return
strategy. Starting in badly affected areas like Léogane and Petit
Goâve last summer, groups of families have being aided in their
return to home communities almost every week.
Last week, IOM helped a further 120 families move to shelters
in Corail outside the capital Port-au-Prince. In addition to those
moved to shelters, tens of thousands of families have received
relocation help from IOM and its partners.
Last Friday saw President Michel Martelly celebrate the return
of one of Haiti’s most celebrated public spaces - Place St Pierre
in Pétion Ville - to public use in a project funded by USAID and
guided by the Haitian government.
That project saw IOM assist with the departure of 527 families,
helped by a rental assistance or temporary housing programme. Over
the next three weeks, a further 673 families will depart from
another public park, Place Boyer. This will not only provide almost
5,000 individuals with more dignified housing than a worn tent, but
it will allow the residents of the congested city the chance to
enjoy a safe public space.
The parks are being rehabilitated with trees and grass and
will be lit by solar lights, enabling students to return to their
long tradition of studying at night time in the parks. The Place St
Pierre and Place Boyer relocation forms part of a broader programme
of return and rehabilitation known as “16/6” because it targets
sixteen devastated neighbourhoods and six prominent camps.
The complexity of the ongoing crisis in Haiti where over
500,000 people remain homeless and the pressure of evictions is
relentless means there is no one size fits all approach. Working
with municipalities across the city, IOM and its partners try to
ensure that solutions are found for the most urgent cases and that
those pressing for eviction provide time for people to leave
campsites in dignity by providing either a temporary shelter, a
safer camp or help in renting accommodation.
IOM’s shelter programme is funded by the governments of Japan,
Canada, Sweden as well as the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund
(CERF). The shelters are designed to resist rain and hurricanes and
have a life span of at least 3 years and probably much longer.
While they do not provide a permanent solution, they buy time for
the people to get their lives back on track.
In addition to shelter construction, devastated hillside
communities in the capital are being reconstructed through rubble
removal from residential plots and public roads, land stabilization
through retaining walls to reduce landslide risk and erosion,
footpaths rehabilitation and drainage canal construction.
IOM’s assistance reached both urban and rural areas including
remote mountain villages.
“We had never received any humanitarian assistance previously.
I believe it is because we are so remote”, said Samuel Joseph, a
subsistence farmer in Aux-Cadets, who has received IOM
shelter.
The IOM Haiti Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), prepared in
support of the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) group,
estimates the camp population for the entire country at
approximately 550,560 at the end of September
2011.
For more information please contact Leonard Doyle at IOM
Haiti, Tel: + 509 37025066; Email: Ldoyle@iom.int
