Maison a Vendre

I’m fortunate to be working alongside wonderful colleagues and friends here in Haiti. Dan Leff took a few minutes to comment on the photograph below from Carrefour in Port-au-Prince. His words at bottom.

Thousands of houses like this one stand half-fallen around Port-au-Prince, next to others that have crumbled into piles of debris.  The sign reads “House for Sale.”  Morbidly funny under the circumstances, but it points to a probably long lasting consequence of the earthquake that can easily be overlooked in the face of the immediate humanitarian disaster.  For the time being, most real estate is virtually worthless.  The collapse of so many homes has created engineering challenges and urban planning dilemmas of an unimaginable scale.  Clearing damaged or destroyed houses and rebuilding will take years.  That is if the residents of Port-au-Prince decide to rebuild at all.  Many are too traumatized to live inside, especially as geologists note the possibility of a stronger quake and popular rumors wildly exaggerate that possibility.  For the time being, even money doesn’t guaranty freedom from sleeping in parks or streets as land, material, and the will to rebuild remain elusive.

– Dan Leff