Canadians beat U.S. counterparts in Haiti rebuild, report says

A scathing investigation published this week found that the American Red Cross, despite raising a halfbillion dollars after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, built only six permanent homes on the island.

Yet, the Canadian Red Cross said Thursday it was able to help build 7,500 permanent homes in the ravaged Caribbean nation.

Representatives from both agencies refused to say how there could be such a huge, head-scratching discrepancy in outcomes.

According to a joint report by Pro Publica, an investigative nonprofit, and NPR, the American Red Cross bungled the management of $500 million in donations. In a statement, the American Red Cross accused the journalists of not being accurate or balanced, but it did not deny that only half-a-dozen homes had been built.

The relief agency claims to have provided housing to more than 130,000 people. It said people were provided homes mostly through rental subsidies and repairs to existing homes.

“The bottom line is that there hasn’t been sufficient land available to build new homes — particularly in the most heavily affected areas of Port-auPrince where people want to live,” the statement said. “Haitians don’t want to leave the neighbourhoods where they lived, worked and went to school before the earthquake.”

The Canadian Red Cross, which collected $222 million in donations, said it was able to put $65 million toward the construction of 7,500 new homes.

Some of its press materials have previously referred to the structures as “shelters,” but spokesman Nathan Huculak said they are all considered “permanent homes.”

The agency concentrated its homebuilding efforts in the coastal communities of Jacmel and Leogane, 30 to 40 kilometres from the capital, Huculak said. It worked with architects and engineers to design the 18-square-metre homes so they could withstand earthquakes and hurricanes but also so they could be disassembled and moved easily, since many families do not own land.

An American Red Cross spokeswoman declined to comment.

In its report, Pro Publica cited confidential memos, emails and interviews with a dozen insiders in painting a picture of a charity that had “broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.”