More than half of the Haitians driven into tent cities and makeshift camps by the January 2010 earthquake have moved out of them, officially bringing down the displaced population to 680,000 from a peak of 1.5 million, according to the International Organization for Migration.
But what may seem like a clear sign of progress, officials warn, is also a cause of concern.
Very few of the people who left the camps — 4.7 percent, by the group’s estimate — did so because their homes had been rebuilt or repaired. Instead, a vast majority appear to have been forced out through evictions by landowners, or to have left the camps to escape the high crime and fraying conditions there.
Now, most of the former camp dwellers are doubled up in their friends’ or families’ homes, scattered at random in tents and improvised dwellings, or living in “precarious housing’’ that is dilapidated, damaged or partly collapsed, the organization said. In some cases, the cinder blocks that were toppled by the quake are being cobbled together to make walls again, only more unevenly and wobbly than before.
About 37 percent of the more than $5 billion pledged last year by foreign governments and international agencies has been disbursed to the Haitian government, the Haiti reconstruction fund, nongovernmental organizations, or other entities, according to the United Nations.
Diplomats have complained of red tape in Haiti and the uncertain outcome of last year’s chaotic presidential election, which was finally resolved when a popular singer, Michel Martelly, prevailed in a runoff in March. He takes office in May, and has pledged to speed things up.
The Haitian government, in turn, has said that some 10,000 nongovernmental groups have failed to coordinate with them, slowing project approvals.
