Fact: Homeless people are always seeking "alternative housing solutions." Camp conditions even before Hurricane Tomas and the cholera outbreak revealed that displaced Haitians were in camps because they had no "alternative housing solutions." According to a study conducted by CUNY Professor Mark Schuller before both Hurricane Tomas and the outbreak of cholera, 40% of displacement camps did not have access to water, and 30% did not have toilets of any kind. Only 10% of families even had a tent, many of which were ripped beyond repair during the hurricane season; the rest were sleeping under tarps or even bed sheets. A study conducted even earlier by the Institute of Justice & Democracy in Haiti found that 78% of families lived without enclosed shelter; 44% of families primarily drank untreated water; 27% of families defecated in a container, a plastic bag, or on open ground in the camps; and 75% of families had someone go an entire day without eating during one week and more than 50% had children who did not eat for an entire day.
Human rights must promise housing, not just forcing people away
from displacement camps. Haiti needs practical and sustainable solutions for re-housing, along with services
and protections for the people who remain homeless.
One year later, it is critically important for the
international community to assist Haitians to secure real housing. The million homeless Haitians and the
hundreds of thousands who have moved out of the large homeless camps into other
areas are our sisters and brothers and still need our solidarity and help.
*Jeena Shah contributed to this report. She is a lawyer serving in Port au Prince as a Lawyers' Earthquake Response Network Fellow with the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
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