U.S. tax dollars, donations invisible in rebuilding Haiti

It’s only 10:00 in the morning, but the Caribbean sun is already hot. The two and a half million people in and around Port-Au-Prince, Haiti already are up and moving, farming, hauling water and selling mismatched shoes and hand-me-down American clothes along the sidewalk.

About five minutes out of town sits a large tent, home to a makeshift church with goats grazing behind it. In the tent are dozens of women and children, singing dancing and praising God. It’s faith in the midst of destruction.

“We believe in Jesus Christ, and if we’re serving Him, of course, He will help us,” said Edith Michelle, wife of this church’s executive director.

The congregation lost its church in the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port-Au-Prince in January 2006. Since then, they’ve been worshiping under this tent on the land given to them until they raise enough money to build a new church. They have about half the funds they need.

The church is among the many in Haiti who are waiting on aid to rebuild. But money donated from around the globe has not made its way to those who need it, Channel 2 Action News found during a recent visit to Haiti.

After the massive quake, billions of dollars from the United States were promised to help rebuild Haiti. Some of it — $1.2 billion — was taxpayer dollars approved by Congress for agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Millions more were donated by Metro Atlantans and others around the country, to relief organizations like the American Red Cross.

Still, since that time, the American Red Cross has admitted it has only built six homes for Haitians. The latest USAID plan for new homes in Haiti includes zero in Port-Au-Prince, as first reported by government watchdog Pro Publica.

The American Red Cross initially reported it would build 700 new homes with the donations from the American people. Officials with the relief agency partially blame land rights issues for only building six.

Haitian authorities say it is difficult to know who owns what land in the country, but that didn’t stop the thousands of people now living in an area called Canaan. It’s on a mountainside that was bare before the earthquake. Now it’s littered with homes, some built of tarps, others of cinder blocks. Every family living in Canaan built their own home, with no outside help.

Dino Descar said it took him three years and a lot of courage to construct his home. It’s only one room and about the size of an American walk-in closet.

“A lot of Americans sent money, but to (be) honest, I don’t even know the color of their money because I haven’t gotten anything. We haven’t gotten anything,” Descar added.

Some of the the homes built by the American Red Cross or funded by the American Red Cross are in Port-Au-Prince’s Campeche neighborhood. One resident quickly showed off a house he said he helped build with an organization funded by the American Red Cross. But his neighbor claimed the group started building his home, and never finished.

Likewise, it was just as hard to track down the homes and projects built by U.S. taxpayer money.

American government agencies initially announced plans to build 15,000 new homes with the $1.7 billion, but those plans have been scaled down greatly.

Some, like the Zoranje Project, were scrapped altogether.

The great American idea was for a housing expo on land already part of an existing housing community. U.S. officials invited dozens of companies to bring model homes to showcase their ideas for housing, and then decide which one would be built.

“Most of the people couldn’t pay for it. It was too expensive,” said Zoranje resident Dolce Marie Joseph. “So they decided to buy something smaller people could afford.”

Jack Johnston with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. has spent years looking into how American money was spent in Haiti. He explained once the U.S. grants a contract to a company, it’s often sub-contracted with each company taken money for overhead.

“It becomes difficult to know how much is getting taken off the top at each layer,” Johnston said. “This information is protected as sort of a corporate trade secret.”

Johnston got records on the spending through federal open records laws, but most were redacted. Others included sheet after sheet of blank pink paper.

He was able to track down who is getting most of the money.

“Looking at the $1.8 billion in USAID funds, 1.5 percent went to Haitian companies and about 56 percent went to firms located in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia — the area termed as Beltway Bandits,” Johnston said.