For many in Haiti, there's nowhere to call home

CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti -- Brazilian peacekeepers operating oversized bulldozers and tractors cleared a barren lot of overgrown weeds and debris, prepping it for its newest residents.

But after days of digging 50 feet for water, the 25-acre site in the shadow of Haiti's central mountain range was abruptly abandoned.

``There was no fresh water. The water underneath is salty,'' said Charles Clermont, the Haitian businessman assigned to help the quake-devastated nation figure out how to shelter more than 1.2 million displaced people.

With the looming rainy season and housing proposals coming to disaster-prone Haiti, both government officials and relief workers are in a race against nature to relocate hundreds of thousands of quake victims living in squalid camps prone to flooding. But in their fervent pursuit of rain-resistant shelter, they are finding an old problem quickly becoming a new one: lack of suitable land.

``We have the stocks to shelter a lot of people. We do not have the land to put them on. I cannot invent land,' Gregg McDonald, lead coordinator for the U.N. shelter cluster said. ``There are lots of discussions going on around land, and land issues. Nothing is resolved.''

As the top U.S. commander in Haiti toured the Champs de Mars encampment in front of the presidential palace this week, he said solving the land issue is critical to recovery.

``The government really has to wrestle the land issue,'' Lt. Gen. Ken Keen said, pointing to a heap of rubble behind him in Turgeau, not far from the Champs de Mars.

``This is a good example of the challenges that it will face: a private piece of land that's going to be cleared of rubble here that could be made available for families to come back in here. But the issue of property rights and the government working with them has to be dealt with very quickly.''

In addition to finding land, officials are trying to determine the safety of homes that were damaged in the quake, chasing residents into campsites.

Over the last couple of weeks, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has structurally assessed 1,500 houses in Turgeau, home to 77 percent of residents living on the Champs de Mars, according to a recent survey by the International Organization for Migration. About 40 percent of the houses have been tagged green, suitable for residents to return, engineers say.

Meanwhile, Clermont has sent a list of 13 properties with their GPS coordinates to international partners of both state and privately-owned land outside of Port-au-Prince. Private owners have also offered their properties to relocate people, and this week Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive authorized the commission to negotiate with land owners for 1,800 acres to move those from camps most at risk of flooding. The capital has no public land available to set up temporary housing.

But even if land is secured, convincing camp dwellers who have developed a sense of comfort in their post-quake tents to relocate, especially outside of the city, will be difficult. In recent weeks, a some residents camping on school grounds and other private properties have refused to move even after authorities explained they had secured other sites.

``You need to have a notion or vision for the future: what you want for the city, do you want to densify the city, or do you want to decongest the city?'' said Erick Vittrup Christensen, senior human settlements officer for U.N. Habitat.

‘Twilight’ Author Stephenie Meyer ‘Very Happy’ With ‘Eclipse’ FilmEx-presidents Clinton, Bush visit Haiti