February 12, 2010
The head of an emergency commission to provide shelter, Charles Clermont, says only a limited number of the 200,000 tents requested by the government have been delivered. Agence Haitienne de Presse reported1 on February 10 that according to Clermont:
[T]he Haitian government has only received 49,198 of the 200,000 tents it has requested from the international community, and only 15,000 of these tents are available in Haiti as of today.
With rain this week an ominous reminder that the onset of the rainy season may only be weeks away, AHP reports that the Haitian government “expects” to have shelter for 1.1 million displaced survivors – by May. Haitians are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of shelter, yesterday Reuters reported:
Although skies cleared by dawn, the overnight downpour and a noisy, early morning protest by several hundred Haitians at the U.N. mission headquarters brought into sharp focus simmering anger over the dire need for shelter in the poorest country in the Americas.
For more of CEPR’s coverage on the issue of shelter, see this, or this.
1Translation provided by Mike Levy.
