Why relief efforts in Haiti are failing so badly

From Money Week:

Why isn't rebuilding taking place?

Lack of money, incompetent governance, and the sheer quantity of rubble are all factors... Put simply, it is hard to be sure who owns what. So the motivation to rebuild is – for the time being – minimal. Most of those living in tents did not own their homes; they were renting.

But even those who did own property are unlikely to have proof. Only about 5% of Haiti's land is accounted for in public records – and the building that housed title deeds was flattened in the earthquake. Long before the quake, land ownership was hugely contentious in Haiti, where land is concentrated in the hands of a few big landowners, known as grandons (or grands-hommes, big men).

Moreover, there is no proper land-registry system. Land titles pass informally from one generation to the next, largely because titling costs several thousand dollars and public officials are generally held to be corrupt.

What has been the result?

According to the UN, the "prevalence of the informal land tenure as well as contradictory laws and weak institutions of enforcement" mean "land tenure security is not established". That has been made worse by the chaos of a city in ruins: with around a quarter of a million people dead, the inheritance and sale of land is subject to even greater uncertainty. For example, is the property owner known to be dead and/or does he have any living heirs?

Moreover, insecure land and property rights have not only undermined reconstruction, but are stifling the chances of an economic recovery. Many small businesses struggle to get loans because the owners cannot prove they own property, and foreign investors – and donors – are discouraged from investing in the country.

The reality on the ground

Corail-Cesselesse is a Westminster-sized area of disused sugarcane land between the sea and the barren mountains about 15km to the north of Port-au-Prince – real estate that has been earmarked for a major new post-earthquake city. The government wants to build 300,000 new homes here – transitional shelters at first; later expanding into permanent homes. But the area is subject to all the land issues that plague the whole reconstruction effort, and no progress is being made.

Multiple families claim ownership of almost every scrap of land. Homeless people 'squatting' the land in makeshift homes are locked in constant battle with hired thugs working for big landowners, and the government lacks the power to negotiate compulsory purchase orders at reasonable prices.
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As I always like to say...

1.'Land ownership' and 'the state' are synonymous. You cannot have one without the other. There appears to be no particular government in Haiti, the place is run by [thousands of] different relief agencies, who are doing a pretty bad job of it because the 'land owners' (who have contributed nothing to the relief efforts) are trying to enforce any claims they might have had against the old government, which has ceased to exist, against the new government (the relief agencies), who are stupidly trying to respect them.

2. As a general rule, when faced with any economic or social problem, the first question is "Would Land Value Tax sort this out? And if so, why?" In this case, it's pretty clear. You can't have LVT without land registration, but with LVT, nobody would claim more land than he can put to good use (for living, farming or business). Right now, the rental value of land in Haiti would appear to be very, very low, so by the same token, LVT receipts would be very, very low. The relief agencies could simply give each family $10 and let them get bidding.

3. If there are 'competing claims' all with equal validity, let's say, then whoever sets the tax rate can bump it up auction-fashion until only one party is left in the bidding. There's no need for a particular compensation scheme - whatever the revenues are can be put to good use building homes and factories and infrastructure, once the economy has got going again, the surplus LVT goes in a pot and gets dished out as a Citizen's Dividend.

4. The new government can announce in advance where the roads, sewage works, schools, housing etc is going, and so they will be able to tell quite quickly which of these projects 'add value', because the amount of LVT that people are prepared to pay for a plot in those areas will be correspondingly higher.