Comment on Plans to rebuild Haiti capital displace families

Plans to rebuild Haiti capital displace families

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The broad avenues in the Haitian government's promotional material are clean and unbroken, dotted with palm trees, parks and manicured expanses of grass. [...] the plan hailed as a sign of post-quake rebirth by some residents has also set off a firestorm of criticism for creating a new wave of homelessness after many poor renters were given just minutes to vacate their dwellings before bulldozers arrived. Bitter quake survivors, some who only recently were moved by aid groups from squalid tent camps to downtown apartments, are back to living beneath tarps or staying with friends. Opposition politicians say they plan to mobilize the newly displaced families in street protests against Martelly's government. Government officials say communication about the demolitions could have been better and contend that some building owners who were notified did not tell their tenants of the coming bulldozers. Renters are also being compensated, but only the few who can prove they lived in their now-demolished homes for about a decade and paid their utility bills, the head of the agency overseeing the project said. For now, it's hard to see the promised shiny, orderly city center arising amid the cracked streets, where steel reinforcing bars twist out of the rubble and are a prized commodity for scavengers.

 

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