Haiti shelter sector assessment

Such are the country"s basic shelter conditions according to this 1980 AID-supported sector study. After assessing socioeconomic factors such as migration, income, employment, and expenditure and savings patterns which impact on a national shelter policy and describing shelter conditions among the poor, the shelter delivery system is analyzed technically (land controls/prices, water and sewerage infrastructure, environmental conditions, and available housing stock) and institutionally (shelter policy, Government of Haiti and financial agencies, and A.I.D. strategy). The study concludes that five main constraints exist to upgrading the conditions of the shelter sector: (1) lack of a definitive Government of Haiti (GOH) shelter policy; (2) GOH inability to develop and maintain qualified middle management at its shelter sector agencies; (3) the difficulty of working in low-income areas which generally have a high population density and are located on hilly or swampy terrain; (4) absence of experienced private shelter institutions; and (5) insufficient mortgage financing. Strategies to improve shelter sector conditions should build upon current initiatives by GOH and foreign agencies to initiate land title registration and land planning procedures, e.g., by extending them to urban areas, and will require a joint GOH/private sector initiative to develop a national capital base for shelter programs. Improvement of the atmosphere for long-term lending will require a revised tax policy to encourage land sales and home improvements, along with GOH policies to secure lenders" collateral, lower the Central Bank"s reserve requirement, and -- of key importance -- to mobilize savings. Another critical need is for public utilities to recover as high a percentage of their investment as possible in order for infrastructure investment to keep pace with the demand for service. In sum, unless internal resources for increased shelter activity are mobilized, the progress already made in designing and constructing minimal shelter solutions will have less impact.