From N.Y.Times - "Rebuilding in Haiti Lags After Billions in Post-Quake Aid"
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: December 23, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/world/americas/in-aiding-quake-battered-haiti-lofty-hopes-and-hard-truths.html?_r=0
André Paultre and Damon Winter contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 25, 2012

An article on Monday about the slow pace of reconstruction in Haiti since the massive earthquake in 2010 misstated the date of the quake. It was Jan. 12, not Jan. 10. The article also misstated the name of a new teaching hospital in Mirebalais. It is Partners in Health, not Partners for Health.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A few days after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, Reginald Boulos opened the gates of his destroyed car dealership to some 14,000 displaced people who settled on the expansive property. Seven months later, eager to rebuild his business, he paid the families $400 each to leave Camp Boulos and return to their devastated neighborhoods.

From the N.Y.Times - January, 1st 2013 - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/opinion/haitis-long-road.html

On the eve of the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, the country remains in a fragile state. Billions of dollars in aid and lofty promises to “build back better” have brought it only so far. A recent article by Deborah Sontag of The Times showed, in disheartening detail, the distance between hope and reality.

I’d think you should know that my Haiti activity has slowed down for the last 4 months or so because I’m involved in a fairly large design project near Seattle, unrelated to Haiti. My role, as architect on the project, should wind down in a month or so, then I plan to spend more time on safely rebuilding Haiti.

These two photos can be found in an impressive piece of investigative journalism prepared by Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW or Ayiti Kale Je), titled: “The Morne à Cabri Mystery Houses”.

HGW reports that this development, 10km east of Port-au-Prince and in the middle of nowhere, will eventually include 3000 of these “tiny” square concrete pillboxes.  To get some perspective on what 3000 might look like, all in rows, a mere 178 units are visible in the top photo.

Presumably the project is designed to house Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) – aka Haitians living in tent camps. HGW’s astounding report asks a slew of unanswered questions, including such basic things as: “Who owns the land?  What is the budget?  Who is overseeing the development?”

Who on earth designed this deplorable complex?  HGW describes it as being located in a “quasi-desert”.  It looks to me like some kind of internment camp, or a strange penitentiary where each inmate is housed in a stand alone cell.

Haiti Grassroots Watch, 10 July, 2012: “The Morne à Capri Mystery Houses”

http://haitigrassrootswatch.squarespace.com/20eng

Zoranje, HAITI, September 24, 2012 – The smells and scenes that greet a visitor to this eerily empty collection of over 60 brightly painted homes and buildings verge on the obscene. Some of the houses are filled with piles of desiccated human excrement, their recently built living rooms and kitchens turned into public latrines. A few appear occupied by squatters. Paint is chipping. Doors have been torn from hinges. Toilets and sinks ripped out.