PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Thousands of Haitians living in one of the biggest tent camps created after last year's earthquake could soon have a new home: the mountains north of Port-au-Prince.
City officials plan to relocate the almost 20,000 people living on the 42-acre (17-hectare) Champs de Mars plaza across the street from the crumbled National Palace if the central government approves, Port-au-Prince Mayor Jean Yves Jason said Wednesday.
Patrick Rouzier, a housing and reconstruction adviser for the government, acknowledged the plan in a text message. He said Jason wants to move the families to Morne Cabrit, a mountain north of the capital, and house them in temporary shelters.
The government has reservations about the approach, Rouzier added, but he did not elaborate. He said he was traveling with President Michel Martelly.
Jason cited an "act of banditry" in the public square as a reason for officials wanting to clear away the camp, which has become a shantytown complete with barber shops, boutiques and restaurants and is a symbol of Haiti's post-quake misery.
"We are going to respond next week," Jason told The Associated Press.
About 20 students have been burning tires at the plaza in recent days in a call for justice after a fellow student was shot and wounded during a robbery for his laptop computer.
Jason said officials are figuring out a plan to compensate the camp residents but didn't answer questions asking how much they would get.
The planned closure comes as Haitian authorities have been criticized for not doing enough to provide housing as they try to move the homeless out of public and private spaces.
Last week, about 60 to 80 demonstrators shut down traffic on a busy thoroughfare to protest efforts to relocate them from a private lot. They said the $125 tat authorities offered to families was insufficient to secure housing.
Martelly said last month that he opposes forced removals.
More than 630,000 people still don't have shelter 19 months after the January 2010 quake, the International Organization for Migration says.
The relief group released a report last week saying that 94 percent of camp residents would leave if they had alternative housing. Most of those surveyed said they wouldn't be able to pay for rent or house repairs if they had to leave immediately.
The Martelly administration wants to close camps in six public places and move the residents into 16 redeveloped neighborhoods, a project the international community supports. The World Bank-run Haitian Reconstruction Fund agreed last month to set aside $30 million for the project pending the submission of a complete proposal.
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