International Housing Coalition (IHC)

On January 12, 2010, a powerful earthquake (7.0-magnitude) struck Haiti causing devastating damage and leaving hundreds of thousands of citizens without shelter, security, food and clean water. Residents of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, including those living in the sizeable slums, were particularly affected. The earthquake destroyed between 50-60 percent of buildings in the city, according to current USAID estimates.

The IHC wanted you to be aware of its efforts and the efforts of its coalition members to help with the challenge of reconstructing housing in Haiti. These efforts involve (1) fund raising for housing construction; (2) ongoing relief work in Haiti to deal with immediate shelter needs; and (3) longer term planning for the reconstruction of permanent housing.

Fund Raising

The IHC encourages you to make contributions to two of our founding partners who are currently providing assistance in Haiti. Habitat for Humanity International has maintained a robust shelter program in Haiti for 26 years and brings its considerable experience in shelter provision and disaster assistance to the recovery effort. The National Association of Realtors has already mobilized the resources of its members to contribute $550,000 to provide relief to Haiti through the REALTORS Relief Foundation. The challenges of providing immediate disaster relief, as well as planning strategically for longer-term recovery in this already-impoverished country are formidable and organizations, like Habitat for Humanity, working on the ground need your support. Please visit www.habitat.org and www.realtor.org to learn more about the crisis and to make a contribution to support the relief effort.

Immediate Relief

The IHC would like to bring your attention to the efforts of one of its coalition members, Habitat for Humanity International and CHF International, a partner of the IHC. Both organizations have staff on the ground and are actively involved in relief efforts. These organizations have multiple years of experience in shelter provision and planning in Haiti.

Longer Term Planning for Housing Reconstruction

The IHC and its founding sponsor, Habitat for Humanity International have both submitted statements to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee suggesting ways that the U.S. might play an important and proactive role in addressing Haiti’s shelter needs. The IHC has offered to provide advice and information about housing in Haiti to the USAID’s Shelter Task Force and to the USAID mission in Port-au-Prince. The IHC has been communicating with a number of experts about housing in Haiti and they have offered to participate in the planning of a U.S. response. IHC member, TCG International, has just completed an important handbook on reconstruction after natural disasters for The World Bank. The handbook, “Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstruction after Natural Disasters” is available through The World Bank. IHC member, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), was in Haiti in July 2009 on a mission to work with the Haitian Government and other key agencies (including The World Bank and Habitat for Humanity International) on shelter safety and building codes. RICS is currently discussing with the UN and others how to expand on that work.

We will keep you informed about the housing situation in Haiti. Click here to read the IHC Statement for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Haiti.

The IHC is supporting the following legislation:

New U.S. Foreign Assistance Act. A new foreign assistance act is being drafted by the House Foreign Relations Committee to replace the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and is expected to be introduced in the spring. The IHC has met with Committee staff on several occasions and has suggested that the Act should recognize urbanization as a cross cutting development theme and highlight the importance of urban investments and slum improvement to poverty alleviation.

In the interim, Committee Chairman Howard Berman has introduced H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009 which would direct the President to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy to further the U.S. foreign policy objectives of promoting global development and improving the monitoring, evaluation, and transparency of aid programs. To date 100 members of Congress have cosponsored the bill.

SLUM Assistance Act (H.R. 1702). Representatives Brad Miller and David Price from North Carolina have introduced the Shelter, Land, and Urban Management (SLUM) Assistance Act of 2009 (H.R. 1702) along with Michael Castle, Jesse Jackson Jr, Gwen Moore and Keith Ellison. The Act calls upon the president to develop an affordable housing and sustainable development strategy which would establish and implement programs that foster sustainable urban development and expand access to basic affordable urban housing and essential urban services and infrastructure for the poor. It does not, however, authorize any additional funding. To date 23 Members of the House have cosponsored the bill. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009 (S.1524). On July 28, Senators John Kerry, Dick Luger, Bob Menendez, and Bob Corker, along with original co-sponsors Ben Cardin and Jim Risch, introduced the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009. Elements of the act include: the creation of positions for a new Deputy Administrator and an Assistant Administrator of Policy and Strategic Planning at USAID and the reestablishment of a Bureau for Policy and Strategic Planning; the creation of an Independent Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE) to evaluate the impact of U.S. foreign assistance programs and multilateral assistance programs receiving U.S. funding; and the requirement that USAID mission directors be made responsible for the coordination of all U.S. development and humanitarian assistance in the field.

Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act (S.624). Senator Richard Durbin, along with Senators Corker and Murray, has introduced the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act (S.624). The legislation would place water at the forefront of U.S. development priorities, with a goal of providing 100 million people with first-time sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015. It would target underdeveloped countries, foster global cooperation on research and technology, provide technical assistance and capacity building, provide seed money to deploy water and sanitation technologies, and strengthen the capacity of USAID and State to implement water and sanitation projects. To date 27 Senators have signed on to the bill and 69 Representatives have cosponsored a companion bill (H.R. 2030) introduced by Representative Blumenauer in the House. Twenty-three Senators, including seven Republicans, have cosponsored this legislation.

Monday, October 5, 2009 was World Habitat Day. World Habitat Day is intended to highlight the importance of decent shelter for all and, for the first time, was held in Washington, DC with Shaun Donovan, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNHABITAT, Anna Tibaijuka, serving as official hosts. Speakers at the October 5 celebration at the National Building Museum included Melody Barnes and Valarie Jarrett from the White House and President Obama voiced his support via video message. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, moderated the event.

The IHC co-hosted two World Habitat Day events:

On October 5, the IHC and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) held a luncheon in honor of the Honorable David H. Stevens, FHA Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Peter Kimm, board chairman of the IHC, and Charles McMillan, President of NAR welcomed the guests. FHA Commissioner Stevens commented on current HUD initiatives.

On October 7, the IHC organized a seminar at the Peterson Institute in Washington, D.C to draw attention to the issues of urbanization, slums and housing. Following opening remarks by Anna Tibaijuka of UNHABITAT and Peter Kimm, IHC Board Chairman, Neal Peirce, a well-known writer and reporter on urban affairs, moderated a panel discussion on these issues and the role U.S. foreign assistance. The panel included Billy Cobbett, Manager of the Cities Alliance, Bob Buckley, Managing Director for Program Initiatives at the Rockefeller Foundation, Sam Worthington, CEO of InterAction and Abba Joshi Ghani, Manager Urban Development at the World Bank. The seminar concluded with a presentation by Steven Feldstein from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the Congressional perspective on foreign assistance reform and the issue of urbanization. David Devlin Foltz of the Aspen Institute facilitated the event. Co-hosts include Habitat for Humanity International, UN HABITAT, the Cities Alliance, InterAction, the Aspen Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation.

There was general agreement among the panelists that U.S. foreign assistance must give greater attention to urbanization because it is a force that is rapidly reshaping the developing world. They noted that while urbanization does generate difficult problems, urbanization can also be the facilitator of economic growth and poverty alleviation. Among the many observations, they stressed that to reap the benefits of urbanization, country governments and aid organizations alike must: promote better city management, invest more public resources in urban areas, and recognize that slum dwellers are entitled to the same basic services and rights as other citizens.

The IHC new Rockefeller-funded White Paper, "The Challenge of an Urban World: An Opportunity for U.S. Foreign Assistance" was distributed to the audience. If you would like a copy of the report, please send a request to Nicole Weir: weir@Intlhc.org.