Urgent need for tent cities for Haitian refugees

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The collapse of much of Haiti's capital has a large part of the nation struggling just to find a place to sleep.

As many as 1 million people need to find shelter, the United Nations estimates, and there are too few tents to put them in.

That leaves about 700,000 other people living on the streets around the city under whatever they can salvage. In the case of Jean Anthony's family, that's a blue plastic tarpaulin for a ceiling and a faded pink sheet with a floral print border for two walls.

"I'm not sure what you'd call it, but it's much more than terrible," said Anthony, 60, the owner of a collapsed restaurant. Thousands of people were camped around him yesterday across from the collapsed National Palace amid piles of trash and the stench of human waste.

"We live like dogs," said Espiegle Amilcar, an unemployed 34-year-old who has been staying under a sheet of plastic.

Disturbances erupted near the camp later when Uruguayan UN peacekeepers fired pepper spray to try to disperse thousands jostling for food aid. Undeterred men surged forward to grab bags, emblazoned with U.S. flags, filled with pinto beans and rice. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was hurt.

Aid organizations say they are collecting tents, but few so far are in evidence. And the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental agency, says it could take experts weeks to search out suitable sites for enough tent cities.

Haiti's government wants many of the homeless to leave the capital city to look for shelter with relatives or others.

The world's nations have pledged some $1 billion in emergency aid to Haiti. Organizers of Friday night's "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon reported the event raised $57 million, with more pledges still coming in.