Glossary Housing Haiti Version 3.4 Feb 17 Edition

Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges 2/18/2011 Page 1
Glossary of Haiti
Housing
Challenges
Concepts Terminology Acronyms
USA Housing mess info at end, shows that US financial industry is now too incompetent
to function in USA, let alone any other nation use USA systems with any authority
Alister William Macintyre research notes
02/17/2011 (last updated)
Version 3.4
Table of Contents
Introduction (1 Feb 16)....................................................................................................................... 4
Key Resources (1 Feb 1)................................................................................................................. 6
Version History (1 Feb 17) ...................................................................................................7
Courtesy Reminder (1 Feb 17) ..................................................................................................9
Copying Tips (0 Sep 10)...........................................................................................................10
Haiti Housing Statistics (1 Feb 17) ............................................................................................. 10
Plan for Tent City Refugees (0 Nov 05) ................................................................................12
Still Unresolved thru 2011 (1 Feb 17) ....................................................................................14
Alternatives Pricing (0 Dec 28) ............................................................................................... 14
Strategic Housing Plan for 2011 (1 Feb 17) ..............................................................................15
1 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Ideological Divides over Haiti (0 Dec 13) .................................................................................15

Severe Weather (1 Feb 16)..................................................................................16
Haiti Severe Weather Shelter (0 Dec 28) ..........................................................................16
Protecting critical documents (1 Feb 17) ..........................................................................17
Problem Solving Model (1 Feb 07) ............................................................... 17
Ideology Political Divisions (1 Feb 17).....................................................18
Quake Rubble urgency (0 Oct 09).................................................................18
Solve Rubble by Fastest Economical Means (0 Oct 09).................................................19
Rubble is a means to an Economy end (0 Oct 09)..........................................................20
Land Owner Documents (0 Oct 20) .............................................................. 20
Infrastructure Delays (1 Jan 21) .........................................................................................21
Apparent orphan children (1 Feb 17).......................................................21
FOOD insecurity (0 Oct 09) .................................................................................23
Reconstruction Commission Split (1 Jan 06) ........................................................................24
Transitional Challenges (0 Oct 01).............................................................................................. 26
US IG evaluates USAID “Cash for Work” (0 Oct 01) .......................................................27
Recommendations of IG Audit of USAID CFW (0 Oct 01) ........................................28
Eviction Scandals (1 Feb 16) .......................................................................................................29
WATER Challenges (0 Nov 12)..................................................................................................31
Terminology Challenges (1 Jan 05) ............................................................................................. 31
Haiti Terminology Concepts (1 Feb 17) .........................................................................................32
C+ (1 Jan 11).........................................................................................................................33
D+ (0 Nov 15)......................................................................................................................34
E+ (0 Nov 15) ......................................................................................................................35
Eviction+ (0 Oct 20) ...........................................................................................................36
Forced Evictions+ (0 Oct 20) ............................................................................................ 37
G+ (0 Oct 01) .......................................................................................................................37
H+ (0 Nov 14)......................................................................................................................38
Land+ (0 Oct 20)..................................................................................................................39
N+ (0 Dec 26).......................................................................................................................40

R+ (0 Dec 29) .......................................................................................................................40

Repair + (1 Jan 16) ...............................................................................................................42
S+ (0 Dec 26)........................................................................................................................42
T+ (0 Oct 01)........................................................................................................................44
U+ (0 Nov 14) ......................................................................................................................44
Al Mac Housing Research Notes (1 Feb 17) ........................................................................46
Suggested Reference Documents (1 Feb 17) ........................................................................46
World Bank (1 Feb 17) ........................................................................................................48
Mixed Terminology (1 Feb 17) ........................................................................................................49
Human Frailties (1 Jan 17) ...........................................................................................................50
Micro Finance (1 Feb 17) .............................................................................................................51
USA Housing Terminology (0 Nov 24)..........................................................................................53
US Banking Fraud + (0 Nov 24) ............................................................................................ 53
US Documentation Bungled + (0 Nov 24)...........................................................................54
US F+ (0 Nov 24).....................................................................................................................55
US Fraud + (0 Nov 24)............................................................................................................56
US Justice + (0 Nov 24)...........................................................................................................57
US MERS + (0 Nov 24) ..........................................................................................................58
US Put-Back + (0 Nov 24) ......................................................................................................59
US Toxic + (0 Nov 24) ............................................................................................................60
USA Toxic Housing Assets (0 Oct 10)...........................................................................................60
Forgery is Ok when Bank does it? (0 Oct 12) ......................................................................62
Risk of Error (0 Nov 14) .........................................................................................................62
New Orleans Snafu (0 Dec 05) ..........................................................................................63
Mortgage Investors (1 Jan 25).................................................................................................63
Home Investors (0 Dec 08).....................................................................................................63
Foreclosure FAQ (0 Oct 10) ...................................................................................................63
Economic Impact of Scandal (0 Oct 16) ...................................................................................66
MSNBC Update (0 Nov 17)....................................................................................................67
Washington DC will investigate (0 Oct 10) ...............................................................................68

Nov 16 Congress Oversight Report (0 Nov 18).......................................................................69

Fire Dog Lake on CRS report (0 Nov 20) ............................................................................69
Nov 16 Senate Hearing (0 Nov 17) ............................................................................................ 70
Primary Actors (0 Nov 17)..................................................................................................70
Some of the problems mentioned: (0 Nov 17) ................................................................ 72
Property Law replaced by Banker Oligarchy (0 Nov 17) ...............................................73
Perception in Eye of Beholder (0 Nov 17).......................................................................73
Conflicts and Confusion (0 Nov 17) .................................................................................74
Solution Suggestions (0 Nov 17)........................................................................................75
Solutions Elusive (0 Nov 17).............................................................................................. 76
House Hearing (0 Nov 19)...........................................................................................................77
Foreclosure and US Courts (0 Oct 10).......................................................................................78
Toxic Foreclosure Documents (0 Oct 16) ............................................................................78
States at Greatest Risk of Housing Fraud (0 Oct 11)’ ....................................................79
Florida Fraudulent Foreclosures (0 Oct 10) .....................................................................79
Bank of America (0 Oct 12) ....................................................................................................80
GMAC (0 Oct 12).....................................................................................................................81
JP Morgan Chase (0 Oct 10) ...................................................................................................83
One West Bank (0 Oct 10) ......................................................................................................84
USA Foreclosure Statistics (0 Oct 10)........................................................................................84
FTC actions fight US crisis (0 Nov 19) ..........................................................................................84
Introduction (1 Feb 16)

Topic sub-titles end in a date signifying when that info last updated, so by viewing table of
contents, we see where most recent input to these research notes, especially aiding people
with copy of an earlier version. The digit, in front of the month, signifies year.
Different aid organizations, foreign governments, UN agencies, international alliances like
OAS, portions of Government of Haiti, have differing viewpoints on best way to handle
various problems. In my opinion, what’s needed is for the representatives, of the different
viewpoints, to hold a conference to debate the opposing ideas, with major news media
coverage, settle on which solutions best, or have most consensus, figure out how to

implement, fund, make legal within Haiti legislation, get the job done. Instead what’s
happening is a war of words, finger pointing, misery perpetuated for disaster victims,
nothing happens. These research notes try to communicate an understanding of individual
challenges, and opposing viewpoints on how best to deal with them. Other research
documents will go into more detail on some of the major issues.
Journalists, Academics, other researchers and interested individuals, are advised to go to the
primary sources which I cite in these research notes. I am not an expert on this stuff. I am
just trying to wrap my mind around what the alleged experts and leaders say are good
solutions, and try to think through the implications, to help avoid unintended consequences.
First ½ of this document is on the Haiti housing disaster and related problems, 2nd ½ on
USA housing disaster. A lot in common with the two disasters, both man made, although
smaller number of actors responsible for the Haiti situation. Figuring this stuff out is a
voyage of economic education for me. Ultimately I will probably split this info into two
documents, one each Haiti and USA. But for now, many people are interested in both areas
… what is this mess, and is there any practical solution?
This “Glossary of Housing challenges in Haiti” research notes document focuses on
understanding special terminology associated with:
 Earthquake Rubble Debris
 Eviction Scandal
 Haiti Life Quality Statistics
 Housing Policy
 Human Rights Housing
 Land Owner Documentation
 Land Reform
 Secure Land Tenure
 Transitional Shelters
This is because I am in the process of splitting my research notes on the above topics into
separate documents, with only one or two such topics in each one, where the new “Glossary
Housing” will be a companion document to the entire new collection, containing info
logically common to all of the Housing research notes documents.
We all want to try to help Haiti even if we sometimes do not always agree on the methods or
politics, or how we came to a current mess, as with inside our home nation’s politics. 1
Disagreement is more likely when it comes to what kind of balance is best between
competing interests, and pros and cons of alternative solution paths.
What belongs in this Glossary document are facts that most everyone can agree on,
definitions of terminology, summary of challenges, academic and other theories. Analysis of
1 Phraseology patterned after a similar sentiment by Mike Perrett on Facebook. Thanks Mike.

pro and con of alternative solutions to these challenges, that kind of content belongs in the
research notes documents specific to each of the challenges or problems, since all solutions
tend to be somewhat controversial, until final solution is selected and implemented.
By splitting research notes by major topic, it makes it simpler to upload download just what
is of interest to individual people, reduce sheer size of info to manage. Previously many of
these research notes documents had their own glossary, which mainly duplicated similar info
in the companion documents. Now they will individually reference this document’s
availability with a very short statement.
Users of my research hold Alister Wm. Macintyre harmless, and also the places I upload my
research to, and agree that my copyright is reserved and that the information is available for
the intended purpose of helping in the recovery of Haiti. Some of my research content is
direct quotes from other sources. I try to give credit every time I do this.
Key Resources (1 Feb 1)

UN systems for keeping track of all their documents have been running
into several problems, such as dependency on Google group features
which are now going away, and many clusters not using the One Response
site which has had some problems, not all spelled out to general
public. Fall 2010, UN moving to a replacement site for documents on
Haiti Relief efforts, modeled after http://pakresponse.info/
http://haiti.humanitarianresponse.info/
UN cluster primarily in charge of Housing solutions in Haiti, prior to permanent
reconstruction, building back better:
https://sites.google.com/site/shelterhaiti2010/
For people who wish to propose housing solutions for use in Haiti, where does above
cluster want them to go, to offer their solutions?
http://groups.google.com/group/haitisheltersolution
Plan Haiti is where people can design replacement housing transparently, in accordance with
international standards of building protection against earthquakes, hurricanes, and other
natural disasters
Haiti Reconstruction forum with links to World Bank, Haiti Government, Reconstruction
Commission, etc. etc. not individually listed here because the sites are down more often than
they are up.
There is also a problem with the management of statistics. Some figure is stated as official, it
gets copied all over the place, then when the official figures get updated, a lot of the copies
are never corrected.

Example, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive is now saying that more than 316,000
people died in the earthquake.2 This is up from the original Gov of Haiti estimate of 250,000
casualties, which gets perpetuated in many reports long after the new GoH estimate.
Version History (1 Feb 17)

My goal includes (I do not always succeed) is to be as factual as possible with the least
political (controversial) content as possible. When the very roots of a problem are in fact
political controversy, this can be very difficult. This is another reason to be very careful to
attribute sources of where I get my alleged facts.
Another goal is to split subject matter to avoid an omnibus document which has many
unconnected topics, where some potential users are only interested in a handful of
dimensions. When there is an inter-relationship of land tenure security, real estate
ownership documentation, permission to enter property to deal with debris rubble, etc. these
complexities can mean that one document needs to have it all, or the different documents
closely linked to each other. This is an evolving effort how I deal with this.
I plan to upload periodic updates of this research notes document (Glossary of Housing
Challenges in Haiti), and sometimes some of my related Housing research and other
reference documents to:
 Yahoo Groups / HDRR = Haiti Disaster Recovery Research / Files / Recovery
Challenges
 Haiti Prism which has developed some very economical and safe housing solutions
to meet Haiti’s needs.3
 HR = Haiti Rewired / Architecture for Haiti Group / Discussions / Definitions
 HR = Haiti Rewired / Building Housing Communities / Discussions / De-
Mystifying Barriers to Haiti Recovery
 HR = Haiti Rewired / Forum Discussions / Housing Reconstruction Challenges
 MPHISE = Medical and Public Health Information Sharing Environment / Forums
/ General Discussion
 Housing and Shelter forum in the Haiti Resilience System.
http://www.haitiresiliencesystem.org/node/118
 Many copies have been e-mailed when there are discussions and questions where I
feel what is in here will answer many of the questions.
 Version 3.4 shared Feb-17 after I started info on Micro-Finance, expanded section
between Haiti and USA, and added many minor updates through out. There is a
2 http://www.haitianinternet.com/articles.php/799
3 http://www.katrina.prizm.org/index.html

serious reality that 1 million plus Haitians will continue to reside in tents and shacks
through another Tropical Storm Season, without access to shelters in case of severe
weather.
 Version 3.3 shared with www.prizm.org Jan 23 = 80 pages 654 k. Haiti Prizm is an
NGO which has developed some very economical and safe housing solutions to
meet Haiti’s needs.4
 Version 3.1 shared with MPHISE Group helping Rolling Stone research Jan 8 = 77
pages 610 k
 Version 2.8 posted to HR-Architecture Group Nov 29 = 71 pages 578 k
 Version 2.7 posted to Yahoo-HDRR Nov 28-29 wee hours = 70 pages 557 k
 Version 2.6 posted to HR-Forum Nov 26-27 wee hours = 70 pages 576 k
 Major updates in November = wrap my head around USA Toxic Housing mess
 Version 2.2 posted to HR-BHC Nov 17 = 58 pages 485 k
 Major updates since version 1.3:
o At the bottom, I added info about USA Housing Market Corruption, which
is very similar to the Haiti Ownership mess, in that the people who live in the
homes are screwed, the judicial system ensures that the alleged crooks make
out like bandits, while the actors in charge of the paperwork explain all
problems as “anyone can make a mistake” and “errors are unavoidable”. A
mess has been created which could take many years or decades to clean up.
If the USA is incapable of rapidly resolving this, what does that say about
how long it will take to clean up the Haiti mess?
o If and when the US scandal diminishes, I may move this to a separate
research notes document. I use same footnote source repeatedly to
document where I got info from, in case later re-write inserts additional text
from some other source in-between.
 Version 1.3 posted to HDRR Oct 10 = 32 pages 260 k
 Major Haiti updates since version 1.2 = Ideological Divides (new sections), and
Eviction Scandals (new section).
 Version 1.2 posted to HR-BHC Oct 09 = 23 pages 210 k
 Major updates since Oct 04 = Inserted separate directory of Al Mac research notes
documents relevant to Haiti housing challenges. Also note key resources addition,
up top.
4 http://www.katrina.prizm.org/index.html

 Version 1.1 to HDRR Oct 04 = deleted when Nov 28-29 replacement posted
 Major updates since Sep 30 = Transitional Challenges (new sections) Terminology
Concepts (e.g. Economy, Redistribution of Wealth) which now have letter break
dates to facilitate future illumination where additions from version to version, and
Suggested Doc (e.g. World Bank newsletter).
 Version 1.0 posted to HR-BHC Sep 30 = 17 pages 160 k
 Contents of this research document were previously in other research notes which Al
Mac is now restructuring for several reasons.
Courtesy Reminder (1 Feb 17)

We should refrain from using the contact information in UN NGO reports, and those I
share in my research documents, to actually contact people who are working in Haiti, unless
we have something specific to help them with that is ready to be implemented RIGHT
NOW. If our solution cannot be implemented, because of some need, such as
transportation, money, whatever, we should say so up front.
When we cross post these reports to some public or semi-public site, we should either cut
out all such contact information, and/or include a reminder to people about this courtesy
need. This includes forwarding of e-mail, or cut posting it to some web site.
Please chop out e-mail addresses of the participants, do not invite them to get spam.
Notice I try to give credit to where I find the info, so people can go direct to the source for
the latest story. We should also give credit to sources for other reasons, such as honoring
their intellectual property.
Relief workers on the ground are working 20+ hour days under frenetic conditions. To
interrupt them, with anything other than direct assistance, in my opinion, is treason to their
relief effort. If we are careless about not pointing this out any place we share the info, then
there is a risk we are accessories to other people not being courteous, and this kind of
information may become even more difficult to access in the future.
In addition to the ethics of not disrupting the workers on the ground by contacting them,
there are also ethics that we should do nothing that might put them at additional risk. They
are already conducting their affairs in a manner that places themselves at risk of kidnapping,
ambush, theft, and other serious events. I am still mentally grappling with whether there is
anything I can do about that. Please just give some thought to such issues, when selecting
what info to share in a public forum.

Copying Tips (0 Sep 10)

In case there's info that you think is vital to share, but the document is READ only, and
there's confidential info that ethics dictate should not be posted in a public manner.
When inside some document, Control A normally copies the entire thing to clipboard.
If you then paste that info to same kind of document, it is often (not always) intelligible, and
the document that you created can be edited by you to remove the data that we think should
not be shared. It probably would be smart to insert a brief statement about what you have
done, including identification of original organization for anyone who has a need to see a
copy of the entire original.
Many of the latest documents have a mixture of English and French.

For those of us not fluent in languages containing useful info, I use Google Translate
http://translate.google.com/#en|ht|
Adjust the selection from language to language

Cut and paste into the top what you want translated
Then you have in bottom a translation you can cut & paste what you want to use
The process is not Star Trek Universal Translator, the quality is flawed, the results
sometimes makes the speaker sound like a brain dead two year old, but it is intelligible.
If the result is totally unintelligible, it probably means we guessed wrong on what 2 languages
to translate between.
I know people in the professional translation business, so let me know if you need those
contacts.
Haiti Housing Statistics (1 Feb 17)

Info in perspective from UN-Habitat as of 2001:
Urbanization
 8 m Total population
 36% Urban population
 86% Slum population within Urban
Annual Population Growth Rates
 4% Urban
 4% Slum
Slum Indicators

% population with access to

 49% safe water
 51% improved sanitation
 65% sufficient living area
 87% durable housing
According to UN Habitat 2009,5 Land Ownership in Port au Prince:
 45% public
o 4% in public is direct recognition (contract or authorization) consisting of
 State housing projects with incomplete titling.
o 41% in the public is indirect recognition (de facto) consisting of
 Invasions with a fermage contract6
 Invasions which are applying for a fermage contract at DGI 7
 Invasions tacitly accepted by authorities
 55% private
o 44% in the private is direct recognition (contract or authorization) consisting
of
 Land and/or houses with incomplete titling or limited transferability
 Land and/or houses subleased without the owner’s consent 8
 Land and/or houses in informal subdivisions
o 6% in the private is indirect recognition (de facto) consisting of
 De facto Invasions
o 5% in the private is Land in litigation or
 Ownership, tenure or right to occupy land under legal dispute
There are many indicators that Haiti government is a fragile or even dysfunctional nation.
The earthquake that shattered Haiti in last January left more than 3.7 million Haitians in
need of humanitarian assistance. The quake not only leveled buildings, but damaged already
5
UN-HABITAT, Strategic Citywide Spatial Planning: A Situational Analysis of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 2009.
6 See Fermage in the Terminology section … a land lease, with title to the home, option to buy the land later.
7 DGI = Direction Générale des Impôts, one of several GoH agencies in the housing area.
8 Elsewhere we are told that of all land owner documentation, 5% is valid and 95% is bogus.

weak institutions and exacerbated the acute challenges facing women and children stemming
from decades of political insecurity and recurrent natural disasters in that country. 9
Prior to the earthquake, 42% of girls in urban areas aged 10-14 years old lived without
parents. The numbers have increased since January leaving girls as young as 10 to provide
for their younger siblings.
According to OCHA10 Oct 12 Humanitarian Bulletin:11
 There are 61,121 IDPs in 293 camps and sites in both Léogane and Gressier of
which 53,962 are in Léogane. According to an IOM assessment of 72 of these
camps, the majority of IDPs were renters before the earthquake and thus have no
land to move to or houses which could be repaired or reconstructed. With no
durable solution viable in the immediate term, the continuous presence of these
IDPs living on privately owned land remains a cause for concern. In Gressier, Camp
Shekinah was the most recent camp IDPs vacated following one-week deadline for
camp residents as per the landowner.
 Support for 685 families in seven camps under threat of eviction continues in Jacmel,
with negotiations between the international community and landowners and progress
on developing a returnee package. A total of 11 camps have been reported under
threat of eviction in Jacmel.
 The CCCM protection unit continues to mediate in eviction cases and is negotiating
time extensions for IDPs in 57 camps. In Port-au-Prince CCCM carried out
assessments on two sites in the commune of Cite Soleil in response to an eviction
case in Delmas.
 Epidemiological research and analysis in camps continues, through a referral service
established by the cluster, MSPP and CDC using data collected from hospitals, fixed
and mobile clinics. On a weekly basis data is collected from around 40 camps and
12,000 clinical visits. Acute respiratory infections, suspected Malaria, and watery
diarrhea account for the majority of clinic visits. There have been repeated reports of
bites from animals suspected to have rabies and a supply of immunoglobulin has
been made available at the PROMESS warehouse in Port-au-Prince.
Plan for Tent City Refugees (0 Nov 05)

Haiti Grassroots Watch asks "What is the plan for the 1.3 million homeless in the tent
cities?" which has been a good question without good answers for going on 10 months
now. The answer has a lot to do with the promised international aid which has not been
9 Relief Web Sep 21. (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

10 United Nations Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
11 Summary and Full PDF. (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

delivered. The UN structure functions on requests for funds for particular goals, whose
implementers never know what money will come.
Nine months after the catastrophic earthquake which killed some 300,000 and left 1.3
million homeless, as reports and articles denounce the terrible conditions in Haiti’s 1,354
squalid refugee camps, Haiti Grassroots Watch decided to look into the issue.
• Is there a plan resettling the refugees, and if so, what is it?

• Who is in charge?
• Will it work?
A dozen interviews, scores of documents and many telephone calls later, Haiti Grassroots
Watch discovered there actually does seem to be a plan. However, it is not readily
accessible to the media or the Haitian public, it is so far only very loosely coordinated
and thus far, is not overseen by any Haitian agency or ministry, making accountability
difficult, if not impossible.
This investigation is comprised of three articles and a sidebar, three videos, a radio
documentary and an interview.12
Part 1 - Who is in charge and what is the plan?
Part 2 – What are the challenges?
Part 3 – Will it work?
Sidebar – The "Cluster" system in Haiti

This kind of investigation reporting is extremely frustrating, because there are scores of such
organizations each spending enormous effort to locate only part of a much larger picture,
instead of cooperating with each other to share the work results. So we end up with a ton of
reports, all of which are incomplete, misleading, lots of duplicated efforts, no solutions.
These investigative techniques are much like the humanitarian NGOs themselves … an
anarchy of different organizations largely incapable of mutual cooperation.
I am seeing info in this investigation which was published by the humanitarian effort over 6
months ago, and this investigation is treating those initial plans like they are the only ones
which exist. In fact, they are the only ones they found.
This investigation met many closed doors. That makes total sense when leaders are
bombarded by scores of parallel investigations by organizations they never heard of before.
12 http://haitigrassrootswatch.squarespace.com/haiti-grassroots-watch-engli/2010/9/27/what-is-the-plan-for-
haitis-13-million-homeless.html

Still Unresolved thru 2011 (1 Feb 17)

What the UN and major international NGOs are calling “Safe Housing” looks to me to be a
cross between a tool shed and an out house, wooden shacks which are a step up from tents
and tarps, but not good protection against tropical storms which are frequent visitors to
Haiti. Some of them are built on flood plains. For more info about these risks, see my
research notes “Weather Science Haiti” and the Science Maps section of my
directory of sources of “Haiti Maps”.
Under current plans, there will not be enough housing solutions by the end of the year 2011
to resolve Haiti's displacement crisis, says International Organization for Migration (IOM).13
"Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are likely still to be living in displacement camps by the
end of 2011," Luca Dall'Oglio, IOM Haiti's Chief of Mission warned. 14
The warning comes early in 2010 as many partner agencies of IOM working on camp
management are phasing out their operations. Facing increasing cost constraints and funding
shortfalls, their departure is leading to a growing gap in capacity to provide services for those
remaining in camps.
Complicating the situation is a rising tide of camp evictions by private landowners. More
than half of the displaced are living in camps established on private land with at least 99 of
Haiti's 1152 camps currently under threat of eviction.
As I detail elsewhere, the IOM is one of the major actors in Haiti with a responsibility to
work with all actors towards workable solutions, instead of passively finger pointing at each
other.
Alternatives Pricing (0 Dec 28)

Alan Scouten, writes in a Haiti Rewired discussion:15
Knowing that the emergency tents delivered to Haiti so far cost over $1000 each, 16 with a
lifespan of less than a year,17 I know that a $750 ShelterONE, that is permanent equity to the
recipient, is a better deal. But no matter what is sent from here-to-there, if there is no place
to set it up, it will end up in the middle of a road median or warehoused along with the rest
of the undistributed aid supplies.
13 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MDCS-8DYE8N?OpenDocument&clickid=headlines#
(Source: OCHA/Relief Web)
14 OCHA Relief Web summary.
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MDCS-8DYE8N?OpenDocument&rc=2&cc=hti
15http://haitirewired.wired.com/group/buildinghousingcommunities/forum/topics/demystifying-barriers-to-
haiti
16 I do not know what the tents and tarps delivered to Haitian tent cities cost. I would be interested to see
definitive figures.
17 According to official reports of the UN cluster doing the distributing, they last 3-4 months, then need to be
replaced. Plus apparently they being replaced by the same quality.

Strategic Housing Plan for 2011 (1 Feb 17)

Haiti Libre published what came from the International Reconstruction Commission: 18
Much of this duplicates what the Gov of Haiti has been quoted as asking on all along.
 Reduce tent city population by moving 400,000 to better housing.
 Complete registration of all earthquake-affected households and identify a housing
solution for each (return, reconstruction, relocation) along with a financial support
mechanism.
 Provide temporary housing or reinforced shelter to families still in camps.
 Complete the strategic plan for urban redevelopment of Port au Prince (phase 1)
and other important urban areas and outlines for financial plans.
 Put in operation a credit program for single and multifamily housing.
 Design and launch projects that provide financial and technical assistance to
neighborhoods, and households for repair and reconstruction, in accordance with
guidelines that reflect government policies (see details goals for 2011).
 Train several hundred builders in improved repair and reconstruction guidelines.
See the article, linked above, for lots more details.
What’s missing from this picture?
Do something about rent policies that lock out the poor from unaffordable housing. 19
Enforce ban on surprise evictions, won by Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
http://ijdh.org/ by OAS Human Rights Court. http://ijdh.org/archives/15406
Ideological Divides over Haiti (0 Dec 13)

Well meaning people can look at similar slices of the same data sets, and come to quite
different views over what’s in the best interests of all concerned. If we are going to reach
consensus on optimal solutions, we need to figure out how to bring the people with these
different viewpoints together to reach some compromise solutions, then get them
implemented.
How long must the people of Haiti reside in tent cities, at risk of cholera and hurricanes until
better quality housing can be delivered? Here is a Canadian radio show discussing that, and
what alternatives are available.20
18 http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2033-haiti-reconstruction-i-housing-strategic-plan.html
19 Recently explained, among other sources, by Action Aid http://www.actionaid.org/ in Full Report =
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/VVOS-8CSMN8/$File/full_report.pdf which Al Mac downloaded
a copy of (some relief web links cannot be found months later) with name “Shelter ActionAid 2011 Jan 4”.
20 http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/talk-tape/2010/12/07/the-new-homes-of-haiti/

The following opinions are from Alister Wm Macintyre, student of Haiti, whose studies and
awakening started when the Jan 2010 earthquake hit. As those studies advance, so may
conclusions and opinions evolve. This info was also posted as Facebook notes, e-mail essay,
other places, often re-written when new sharings.
Severe Weather (1 Feb 16)

We have witnessed multiple incidents of a disaster, aid rushing in, then because of the
infrastructure damaged by the original incident, the whole disaster area is vulnerable to
additional disasters, which are predictable when we compare multiple disaster responses to
each other, and view history of the region which experienced the disaster.
In my opinion, there is a need for a partnership between
• Weather monitoring like US NHC (National Hurricane Center) except world wide
partners
• UN humanitarian and other global interventions
• Computer science vendor(s)
When there is a situation which will have a protracted need for aid to the area, such as Haiti
now, Pakistan area now, certain crises in Africa,
• Position a weather satellite over the troubled area, and install other weather forecast
infrastructure, so that the troubled area can get high speed weather forecast information, and
also timely reports of volcanoes going more active, earthquake risk detection, tsunamis,
everything that can threaten the people when normal infrastructure kaput and they are living
in skimpy shelters. Coordinate this with a weather ship which has the full range of weather
science and public broadcasting services.
• Establish a public announcement system which people can subscribe to over a diversity
of consumer electronics, such as weather radios, mobile phones, internet ... this to broadcast
updates of trouble brewing to lower risk of surprises ... transmit this in a diversity of
languages, relevant to the region, and to the personnel providing aid.
For additional information on this topic, see my research notes document “ Weather
Science Haiti” and the Science Maps section of my directory of sources of “ Haiti
Maps.”
Haiti Severe Weather Shelter (0 Dec 28)
UN Clusters have done a good job inspecting buildings to determine which are appropriate
to protect Haitians in the event of a hurricane. They need to go the extra mile of making it
easy for the population to know where they exist, and get to them in an emergency.

Their failure to inform the Haitian public where this protection exists,21 has fueled
conspiracy theory that this failure is deliberate.
Protecting critical documents (1 Feb 17)
The Red Cross has provided a useful service, in providing pouches for tent city occupants to
store personal documents, away from the weather. 22 It might be better if those people could
protect those documents when faced with surprise eviction and gangs, and take them with
them to the Severe Weather Shelters.
Problem Solving Model (1 Feb 07)

In my opinion,
the people of Haiti ...land owners, Parliament, President, Prime Minister, displaced, UN,
NGOs, international community (Diaspora, donors, OAS, CARICOM, World Bank) …
they are perfectly capable of coming together and agreeing on what must be done. They did
that March 2010 with scores of meetings of all stakeholders, to decide on the reconstruction
plan, how to finance it, how to manage it. They can do the same thing to solve other
national needs, if they so desire. The fact, that they are not doing so, indicates that the
national will is not there to solve the problems.
After solution selected, through this democratic process of all stakeholders, with mutual
access to all concerns and proposals, which may mean need more than one meeting some
stakeholders, strong leadership is required to get results through parliament (no changes by
parliament contrary to other stakeholder consensus) and implementation, overcoming any
unforeseen stumbling blocks.
A question could be put to candidates, and to their various supporters, in upcoming Haitian
elections:
1. Are you aware of the mess of meetings in March 2010 attended by representatives of
all stakeholders, which led to the reconstruction plan? People from different areas of
Haitian life came with different views, the compromised on a plan that they could
live with, all the people who participated. Several groups did not directly participate,
but provided dissenting opinion reports, whose content was eventually merged into
the main plan.
2. If this model was to be followed to deal with some other Haiti challenge, such as
land ownership security and clear title documentation, rubble debris, early warning
system when bad weather coming, replacing UN military with Haitian doing the job,
21https://sites.google.com/site/ochahaiti24septstormresponse/home/severe-weather-community-shelters-
abris-d-urgence
22 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-8CJMRR?OpenDocument

improving Haiti economy including agricultural, people getting paid for the work
they do, restructure CEP so people have more confidence in its decisions (such as a
mandate to explain them), and other issues ... would you agree this is a good model
to follow, and would you support such an effort?
Now for some good news, check out the Haiti Emergency Housing Techniques Wiki.23
Ideology Political Divisions (1 Feb 17)

In US politics there is a concept of “unintended consequences.” This means that people,
who should know better, make superficial judgments, without thinking through the
consequences and implications of their decisions, then after their laws and mandates have
been in effect for a while, and we all witness the horrible side effects, the originators plead
ignorance, claiming it is not reasonable that they could have foreseen the consequences of
their actions. We see this with legislators, and we see it when they question the captains of
industry in the aftermath of economic disasters.
Among ordinary people who lobby for legislation, we also see it. For example, there are
those who are utterly opposed to both teenage pregnancies, and to providing youngsters
with the kind of education which would help them reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies. I
feel people with that ideology have two contradictory viewpoints, where they refuse to think
through the contradiction, and come up with a better philosophy. When we witness such
contradictions, and try to reason with those people, it is soon evident that they are in denial
that there is anything to talk about.
In my opinion, the Humanitarian relief effort also has far too many people with an ideology,
which has severe consequences, and whose exponents are not interested in finding solutions
to the ideological divides. In the sub-sections of this section on “Ideological Divides” I try
to explain some examples of how I arrive at this conclusion.
There is also baggage from past behaviors of a nation, now criticized by both patriots and
those who are not necessarily our friends. For example, check out the Socialist Worker .org
history of USA Imperialism in Haiti.24
Quake Rubble urgency (0 Oct 09)

Debris Rubble clearing – how long is reasonable to get the job done?
Note my separate research notes document “ Haiti Quake Rubble Debris” which
explores size of challenge, some of the problems, various approaches being implemented,
23 http://heht.wikidot.com/
24 http://www.scribd.com/doc/36327970/Haiti-January-2010

discussed. However, solving this problem, as with many others, can be frustrated when the
people in charge have very different notions on what they are trying to accomplish.
There is a trade-off that many actors struggle with. I happen to favor the first of these two
choices, but leaders of my government’s efforts in Haiti appear to favor the second, and
governments are known to use strong arm tactics to impose their ideological views,
in the absence of encouraging open discussion of alternatives.
Solve Rubble by Fastest Economical Means (0 Oct 09)
1. Is it better to get the rubble debris cleared from potential rebuilding sites as fast as
possible, which means using a machinery solution?
In other words, Haiti will be better served by putting the people in safer homes, with places
where they can have good jobs, in the next few years, instead of waiting decades until the
rubble can be cleared by hand.
This approach is favored by supporters of beltway bandits, meaning sooner profits for
companies from outside of Haiti. It is also supported by people who have no financial stake
here, and are appalled at solution # 2 which says that hundreds of thousands, if
not millions of Haitians must be staked out in tent cities which are bulls eye targets
of hurricane roulette for all of 2010 2011 and perhaps additional hurricane seasons.
Haiti property owners, who want quake survivors kicked off their alleged land, and don't
care where they end up, if they applied their brains to the reality in Haiti, would probably
favor this approach, because it would mean the quake survivors would in fact no longer be
on the same land as the alleged land owners would have any title to, real or imagined, unless
the proved owners were receiving guaranteed income in exchange for their land use, or
eminent domain compensation.
Remember that the total volume of rubble from the Haiti earthquake is astronomical
compared to WTC of 9/11 (as shown by UN debris fact sheet which I have e-mailed various
people), and remember how long it took to clear that by modern construction machinery
and convoy of dump trucks.
Look at Katrina aftermath ... that was 5 years ago, and the job is far from complete. Some
estimate Katrina recovery at current rate would have been 20 years to get done, except Gulf
Oil spill set that effort back. (According to the UN Debris fact sheet, Katrina debris was
worse than Haiti earthquake.)
How long will Haiti reconstruction take by comparison? Haiti reconstruction not being
conducted as efficiently as Katrina recovery.

Rubble is a means to an Economy end (0 Oct 09)
2. Is it better to get the rubble debris cleared using Haitian laborers via cash-for-work
(CFW) so money flows into the economy?
In other words, revitalizing the economy with stimulus money, bottom up, is more
important than making it practical to rebuild the destroyed buildings, any time in the next
few years, or decades. This approach is favored by many NGOs who would prefer Haiti to
continue to be a Republic of NGOs for another 100 years, and by government
reconstruction development leaders who approve NGO state-of-art.
USA Inspector General did an audit of cash-for-work, in which it was clear that the IG
thought solution # 1 was self-evident, and criticized USAID for taking us down the path of
solution # 2.25 USAID is vehemently fighting this within US government, arguing that the
IG does not understand Haiti reality. This is an ideological divide, where people do not
argue on the merits of their case, but by demonizing the intelligence of their
opponents, a familiar pattern in US politics.
Land Owner Documents (0 Oct 20)

My separate research notes document “Haiti Land Tenure and Ownership
Documentation” explores competing views on how best to deal with this crisis.
At the global level, tenure issues fall under the Protection Cluster’s Sub-Working Group on
Housing, Land and Property.26 Historically this cluster has emphasized legal reform over
addressing the barriers to implementation faced by governments. However, the working
group is moving towards a more nuanced approach to tenure security under the stewardship
of UN-Habitat. With no single agency responsible for ensuring coordination between
different UN clusters, and the huge volume of NGOs locked out from cluster participation,
there is a risk of duplication and gaps.
French, Canadian and US governments favor a top-down cadastre of legal tenure partly in
the belief that legally owned land or property assets can facilitate access to credit where they
can be used as collateral. Note that France and Quebec already have such a system.
Opponents argue there is a risk that this approach will be costly, slow and inappropriate,
may reinforce biases towards the most established and powerful formal owners able to
produce documentation.27 They point out that ‘a strict asset-replacement approach to
housing provision and a rush to confirm property rights through rapid adjudication and
systematic titling programmes will not be appropriate to meet the housing needs of the
majority of the affected population who are tenants and squatters rather than owners’.28
25 More info on this, in a separate chapter here, within Transitional Challenges.

26
See https://sites.google.com/site/shelterhaiti2010/twig-1/land and Settlement.
27 95% of existing documentation is bogus, as documented elsewhere.
28 Thompson and Altidor, ‘A Framework for Housing Reconstruction’.

The approach so far, by the Humanitarian community, has been to develop beneficiary
agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with municipalities to establish
security of tenure for transitional shelter. From a legal perspective, MoUs and informal
agreements have no official status as public notaries are rarely used. Risks of eviction for
beneficiaries are therefore unclear. Although mayors have signed MoUs, they have no
authority under Haitian law to sign off in relation to land issues, and may have strong
personal or political interests which can bias decisions over land use. Mechanisms for
addressing grievances are not in place and it is unclear whether municipalities can be engaged
as mediators in land disputes. So basically the humanitarian community is using a new
system which may not work, in place of a system which is known not to work, to deal with a
crisis in the short term, which is no final solution .29
According to recent UN and other summary reports, permanent housing won’t start until August
2011. That gives them a year and a ½ after the Jan 2010 earthquake to come up with a workable
solution. I predict failure to meet that scheduled deadline.
Infrastructure Delays (1 Jan 21)

The National Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation (DINEPA) had begun building the
first, wastewater treatment plant (station d’épuration) in Haiti with funding from the Spanish
Government for an amount of $2 million in the locality of Titanyen. Work began at the end
of November 2010 and was nearly 80% completed, then had to halt due to problems with
land ownership policy.30
Apparent orphan children (1 Feb 17)

There are a ton of challenges for children in a disaster, where it will not be obvious to most
people what the best solutions are. When someone disagrees with this, they probably are
either a crook, or have failed to think through all the implications.
When children are carried across borders to another nation, without the proper paperwork,
they become stateless, with no documented citizenship in any nation. This makes them
undocumented illegal immigrants or permanent second class citizens with ruined adult lives.
History is full of stories of children reaching adulthood in some nation, only to find they
have no citizenship rights, and they cannot return to their homeland.
When we review the UN cluster reports on aid to Haiti, as of a year after the disaster, there
are still thousands of children not yet re-united with their families, with the needs of children
in general being largely ignored by policy making, and UN budgeting. They have a plan, but
in the years it takes to implement, for some children the mental health implications are
devastating.
29 Coordination and the tenure puzzle in Haiti by Kate Crawford, Emily Noden and Lizzie Babister,
CARE International UK in
Humanitarian Exchange October 2010.
30 http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2177-haiti-spain-works-blocked-unacceptable.html

There is an epidemic of rape, where children are among the most vulnerable. This is hitting
both children separated from their families, and children with their families, because during
the day families have to go hunt work, leaving kids in a tent city where there is no security.
At night, most camps are without light, and they are regularly raided by gangs which know
the police patrol schedule, so they skip the few hours when protection visits.
Just because some people are a “church group” does not necessarily mean they are there for
the good of the children. Some are pedophiles, some are missionary tourists ignorant of the
culture they visiting.
Some orphanages have good funding, but that is exception to rule in Haiti. Children have
special nutrition needs according to age, and being malnutritioned for any length of time can
hurt children development far worse than impact on adults.
Most children, in the orphanages of nations in disasters, are not orphans. Some have been
placed there by their parents for a variety of purposes (such as education and security) other
than the traditional purpose of an orphanage.
Many so-called orphanages are in fact fronts for criminal organizations.
Many criminal organizations “rescue” children, so they can use them to raise funds, instead
of working on best interests of the children.
One viewpoint says "To hell with the well being of the children", keep them in horrible
conditions, until the nation with the disaster is able to reunite orphans with family, which
could be an eternity to rebuild that capability. Then only those, who cannot be reunited,
become eligible for adoption. They do not actually use the phraseology I employ here,
because they are in denial that their ideology has such consequences.
Here is Save the Children making the case to reunite children with their families. 31
Other viewpoint says "To hell with the children who end up in slavery", let that
abomination slave trade flourish, because we want to rescue a handful of children from the
horrible conditions, and we are utterly opposed to any regulations that get in the way of
ANYONE taking ANY children out of that horrible place. They do not actually use the
phraseology I employ here, because they are in denial that there is such a thing as child
slavery in this day and age, or that it is a big problem.
These two groups periodically fire off PR that the news media picks up on. They never work
together to try to solve the associated problems.
For example, arrangements could be made to have “children at risk” TEMPORARILY

spend a few years living in a foreign nation community, where they will get a bilingual
education – both their home nation native language, and that of their temporary home.
Security and proper nutrition are standard. Make arrangements for frequent contact with
31 Relief Web SC Summary; Full Report on Misguided Kindness. (Source: OCHA/Relief Web) Also here.

back home. The plan all along would be to grant them dual citizenship, return home after
both the disaster recovery has been mitigated to the point that going home is no longer to an
“at risk” environment, and do so between school years, to minimize transition disruption.
Yes, many nations do not recognize dual citizenship. This can be fixed.
For example, arrangements could be made to have government sponsored services that look
in on the welfare of adopted children, do so for foreign adoptees, with copies of the reports
going back to the originating nations. If a family escapes inspection, issue arrest warrants for
suspected kidnapping for the slave trade.
There are additional nuances regarding the challenges of children in disasters in my research
notes document “Haiti Housing (and other) Human Rights” (H3R).
FOOD insecurity (0 Oct 09)

There is a need to provide sufficient food to young children, so that they develop normally.
This is regardless of their parents and family and friends etc. economic ability to provide for
them, which might have been practical when the children were conceived, but then along
comes a disaster like hurricane or earthquake which wipes out homes and livelihoods.
There is a need to help a nation be self-sufficient, feed itself, clothe itself, have a balance of
trade that is healthy.
The ideologies of Haiti debate has been framed that we can have one or the other, but not
both. This means that anyone who tries to explore if it is even possible to have both, gets
demonized by both of the two dominant viewpoints.
This is reminiscent of in the USA where the end goal might be green jobs where we have a
good economy and good environment, at the same time. But the ideological divide was a
leadership who felt that cleaning up the environment was the same as destroying great jobs,
so what we needed to have was a reality where everyone had a great income, but lived in a
hell of pollution, birth defects, everything contaminated.
One group says "To hell with Haiti agriculture", we need to try to feed disaster victims,
because malnutrition is crippling another generation of infants. They really do use this kind
of language because they believe:
1. Agriculture policy is long range planning, which won’t much be disrupted by a

temporary disaster, that we hope to get resolved as rapidly as possible.
2. There’s a disaster, we can fix things, then life goes on.
This group is in denial that the state-of-art of reacting to serial disasters around the world is
such that for decades, the disaster aid groups have been perpetuating nations in a condition
of dependency upon their aid. If they continue to be in charge of Haiti disaster
recovery, the Haiti of 10 years from now will look just like the Haiti of today .

Other group says "To hell with Haitian disaster victims", we need to rebuild Haitian
agriculture. That philosophy is now responsible for food aid having been cut off from
millions of survivors of the Jan earth quake, but they still not satisfied. There's food aid
going to some 50,000 infants who might otherwise starve to death, or suffer long term
developmental problems due to protracted malnutrition. This group wants that to happen,
because nothing is more important to them than the economic well being of the Haitian
farmers. They do not use the kind of language of my example, because they recognize its
divisive nature, and they are intentionally ignorant of the consequences of having young
children exposed to continuous malnutrition, or they think of those children as being slaves
of the future, who do not need the nutrition needed to grow a brain.
These two groups periodically fire off PR that the news media picks up on. They never work
together to try to solve the associated problems. Mainstream news media never provides a
debate between these two view points, to seek some middle ground.
For example, the NGOs could purchase 100% of the Farmer agricultural output for use in
food distribution to earthquake victims, only import if not enough from that source. Any
excess Haitian output, help Haitian economy export it. If an NGO or whatever says "We
cannot do this because of some law of our host nation" then complain at UN that USA or
whatever nation bans this because of some specified law such as the US Bumpers
Amendment, and keep after that nation until that law is rescinded.
Here they are going that round again.
Reconstruction Commission Split (1 Jan 06)

SOURCE OF IHRC "Minority Opinion" LETTER
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/69-more-blog-posts-from-
norman-girvan/524-protest-letter-from-haitian-ihrc-members-to-commission-co-chairs
PROTEST LETTER FROM HAITIAN IHRC MEMBERS TO COMMISSION CO-
CHAIRS
Source: Le Matin Newspaper. Unofficial translation from the French by Isabeau Doucet
Santo-Domingo, 14 December, 2010
Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, Co-Chair President William Jefferson Clinton, Co-chair
Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission
alan scouten commented on Derek Xava's group "Architecture of Haiti" on Haiti Rewired
------------
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF HAITIAN MEMBERS’ OF HIRC SPEECH:
Dear Mr. Co-Presidents:

We the 12 Haitian Members of the Haiti Interim Reconstruction Commission (HIRC)

present, in regard to the experience we have accumulated within the aforementioned

commission since its creation, feel a duty to express concern about the strategic
framework put forward in today’s agenda.
The 12 Haitian members present here today feel completely disconnected from the life of
the HIRC. Even in this IT era, there exists a critical deficit of communication and
information flow on the part of the Executive Secretariat and even more so with the
Executive Committee despite our role in the governing structure of this institution, we
have to this day, received no report on the activities of the HIRC.
Contact is established only the day before board meetings. As a result, as members, we
have no time to read, analyze, or digest the information and even less time to react
intelligently to the projects which are being presented to us at the last minute despite all
the official complaints and all the promises made to address this issue.
Moreover, we are unable to answer, for lack of essential information, elementary

questions from the public or from any interested persons. A good number of
interlocutors think that there is a complete hold on information.
Mr. Co-Presidents,
No effective functional bond exists between the Executive Secretariat and the Haitian
section of the council, or between the latter and the Executive Committee. Projects are
transmitted to the council in the form of summaries the day before meetings. Procedural
changes to the online submission of bids for projects are changed without any
consultation.
The recruitment of the personnel and the choice of the consulting firms were made
without the knowledge of the Haitian members of the Board of Directors. No documents
were received informing the council of the criteria for recruiting or the profiles for the
candidates. This is also true for the firms which have received contracts, the Haitian
members of the council are unaware of even the name of these firms that work for the
HIRC or their roles.
Taking into account this deficiency, Mr. Co-Presidents, the Haitian members of the HIRC
invited the Executive Director to give a progress report on the status of collaboration
between the two sides (Haitian and foreign). The invitation was ignored.
In reality, the Haitian members of the Council appear to fulfill a puppet role, which is to

rubberstamp the decisions adopted by the Executive Director and the Executive
Committee. The comments of Professor Jean-Marie Bourjolly in his memorandum of
October 4, 2010 summarize the situation well. And we quote: “We must devote the
greatest part of our energies to build a plan with a strategy and tactics that conforms with
the general principles stated in the Action Plan.
Our role was restricted to approving projects, in so far as I can judge, on the basis of first
come, first served. We risk finding ourselves with a panoply of disparate projects,
certainly interesting and useful when considered in isolation, but which collectively do
not respond to the urgency of the situation or provide the foundations for the sustainable
rebuilding of Haiti, much less our long term development.”
Mr. Co-Presidents,
In terms of protocol, the treatment accorded to the Haitian section of the Executive
Committee reveals an effort to minimize this branch of the council. As proof of this
assertion, the unacceptable reception during the September 20, 2010 meeting in New
York where several of the Haitian members of the Commission were omitted from the
seating at the discussion table.
As Haitian members of the Commission, we believe we have a special responsibility for

the proper functioning of the Commission in its mission to work for the reconstruction of
the country and to do so in the interest of Haiti and its People living both inside the
country and overseas.
Signatories:
Joseph Bernadel
Lucien Bernard
Jean-Marie Bourjolly
Jean Renald Clerisme
Lucien Francoeur
Claude Jeudy
Gary Lissade
Suze Percu Filippini
Georges Henry, Jr.
Transitional Challenges (0 Oct 01)

In the aftermath of any disaster there are typically phases:
 Rescue Lives … people in dire risk of death, need to be found, taken to safety

 Relief Aid … provide the people with essentials for continued survival, until better
arrangements practical
 Transitional Planning … lay groundwork to protect the people from additional
disasters, such as hurricanes in Haiti, also related issues that might complicate
permanent solutions
 Permanent resolution … quality housing, strong economy with plenty jobs,
environment cleaned up, etc.
In Haiti, as of 8 9 months after the Jan 2010 quake, we are no longer in the rescue phase,
Relief Aid continues, Transitional Planning has now been progressing since around June,
with Permanent resolution still on the horizon, not started yet.
US IG evaluates USAID “Cash for Work” (0 Oct 01)

Immediately after the Jan 2010 quake, aid was launched to Haiti by: the UN; most all
nations; thousands of for-profit companies; astronomical sums donated by people all
over the world to tens of thousands of non-profit organizations for aid to Haiti. The US
response was split between USAID, military, and special representatives of the
President and US State Dept.
USAID’s response included cash-for-work (CFW) short-term jobs, where ordinary
Haitians could do much of the work cleaning up earthquake damage, and performing
light infrastructure work, where good pay for them should trickle into rest of Haitian
economy. USAID used private contractors (beltway bandits) and NGOs to actually
implement the CFW, with a series of projects totaling $ 13.6 million thru the end of June
2010.
Following the earthquake, extensive rubble and debris prevented Haitians from
rebuilding Port-au-Prince, and other cities, and resuming normal lives. Much of the
rubble remained in place; when people removed rubble, they relocated it to the center or
the sides of roads, making some streets impassable. Meanwhile, many schools,
hospitals, businesses, and homes remained blocked. The debris also created an
environmental and health hazard. Rain leached toxic chemicals and carcinogens from
the debris and sent them into the storm water system and ultimately into drinking water.
Storm drains, blocked by debris, exacerbated flooding after normal weather. Rural
areas also needed rehabilitation.
In the USA, government agencies are subject to periodic audits by Inspectors Generals,
Judge Advocate General (military), and the General Accountability Office. These
inspections generally report to the top of agency, and to Congress and President, with
what they find. Often there is also a report shared with the general public.
The objectives of this audit32 were to determine whether USAID is managing these CFW
programs effectively and whether the programs apply sufficient internal controls to
minimize occurrences of fraud.
32
I am summarizing the audit results here. Check the link to see the full 25 page report. I
also downloaded it with the name “Accountability Audit USAID IG 2010 Sep 24.”

The audit found that USAID’s management of these CFW projects was resulting in
tangible, though limited, contributions to Haiti’s recovery efforts.
High costs for trucks and other heavy equipment, meant less money into the Haitian
economy thru payroll, so volume of Haitians hired fell far short of expectations.
USAID had allowed its implementing partners to adopt different safety policies and
procedures for similar work, and that enforcement of these standards varied from site to
site (page 9). By failing to develop and enforce consistent workplace safety rules and
accident procedures, USAID increased the risk of serious and avoidable workplace
accidents.33
Some implementing partners left worker selection almost exclusively to municipal

officials. This approach increased the risk that political officials may use this program for
political and financial gain.
Although sites for rubble removal were to be selected on the basis of their benefit to
entire communities, one implementer was clearing private lots without clear justification
or approval, providing significant benefits to the owners of the lots.
Recommendations of IG Audit of USAID CFW (0 Oct 01)

To serve more program beneficiaries and increase the overall operational efficiency of
USAID CFW activities, the audit recommends:
1. _ Expanding CFW efforts to projects other than rubble removal to provide more
extensive and cost-effective employment opportunities for Haitians (page 9).
USAID disagreed here, suggesting that the auditors had failed to understand
Haiti realities and recovery objectives.
2. _ Partnering on CFW rubble removal efforts with organizations that can provide
the required trucks and heavy equipment (page 9). USAID agreed in principle.
3. _ Standardizing policies and procedures regarding safety equipment and
response to accidents (page 11).34 USAID agreed.
4. _ Maximizing community participation in beneficiary selection (page 12).35 USAID
agreed.
5. _ Requiring the submission of detailed justification for the removal of rubble from
private residential sites (page 13). USAID disagreed. IG arguing.
6. _ Completing validation reviews of any private home sites included in rubble
removal efforts (page 13). USAID disagreed. IG arguing.
33 In other research (sorry I cannot cite references at this time) I have found a lack of enforcement of safety
standards in cash-for-work. For example: not provide gloves to people handling debris which can include
sharp objects, human remains; no compensation to workers injured on the job – tough, fired because too
injured to continue.
34 The audit gives details on the standards of each of USAID’s CFW partners, then found that actual practices
on-site did not measure up to their official standards, explained how come.
35
Standards exist for minimizing risk of corruption here, which USAID not yet using. Guide
to Cash-for-Work Programming, Mercy Corps, 2007,
<www.mercycorps.org/files/file1179375619.pdf>.

7. _ Completing financial reviews of all implementing partners (page 13). USAID

agreed.
USAID agreed with four of the seven recommendations. The Inspector General has
deadlines for implementation, and resolution on the three where there was
disagreement.
Eviction Scandals (1 Feb 16)

As stated elsewhere, when there is a dispute between those who have a legitimate claim to
own some land or housing, and the people who are living there, there is a civilized way to
resolve this. First the owner meets with the tenant to try to resolve the problems. If they
cannot settle amicably, they go to the judicial process.
The judicial authority gets to see proof that the people are who they claim to be, hear their
grievances, see evidence to substantiate the allegations.
If the owner must fix some problem, there is a court system extremely experienced at getting
this enforced, in a firm but gentle manner, where the focus is on getting the job done.
If the tenant must be evicted, there are police persons who understand human rights and
proper force. They can get the tenant and tenant possessions removed in a firm but gentle
manner, which does not place the tenant at risk of life and limb.
What has been happening in Haiti, is land ownership is by who has the strongest thug army.
The court system is not involved. Occasionally the UN military or Haitian Police are called
in, not to adjudicate, but to be conned by one side to attack the other side. People are trying
to sleep in poor quality tents, when a thug army arrives to drive the people out like cattle.
They do this at night, because the people are more likely to be taken by surprise when they
are sleeping.
This happens all over Haiti to tens of thousands of people, robbed of their homes by the
earthquake, robbed of their meager remaining possessions each time this happens, hunt for
some piece of land where they can setup a new camp. More often than not, the place they
find is apparently available, because the people who were there were driven out in a prior
mass eviction.
The family, who think they own the land, but probably have no documentation of this which
would stand up in a court of law, having driven one bunch of survivors off their property,
see that the land is once again occupied by squatters, so another nite they send the thug army
in to drive them off also.
Many facts are in dispute.
 How long it is reasonable to expect that there is an emergency due to the disaster,
during which people should not be demanding that civil society return to normal,
and to hell with disaster survivors who need help returning to normal.

 How common are mass evictions with great brutality?

 What is the aggregate number of mass evictions of Haitians? 36
 How many Haitians are currently under threat of mass eviction?
 For the displaced by quake survivors, what are their moral and ethical responsibilities
to fellow citizens, whose land the tent cities are on?
 For the land owners, what are their moral and ethical responsibilities to fellow
citizens, displaced by the quake?
We have accumulated links to relevant evidence in many discussions on Haiti Rewired and
elsewhere.37 Also see Al’s research notes specifically on “Haiti Housing Human
Rights” (H3R), all of which are being violated.
Al Mac started Haiti Rewired thread, in Architecture for Haiti Group: Forced Evictions
of Quake Survivors from Camps with no advance notice, (also Rape Epidemic,
Accountability, Perspective). This thread includes links to countless news and other stories
on specific incidents, places, numbers of people involved.
Ansel posted a Haiti Rewired blog about Landowner rising tensions over “Temporary
Camps” which the Haitian Government and NGOs seem to be taking forever to resolve.
He included links to related incidents.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is one of the most powerful
organizations today in Haiti. One of the areas they manage is the challenge of people
displaced, like refugees in their own nation. They have a web site "Camp Management
Operations (CMO) in Haiti" to share data from small teams that have fanned out across
Haiti trying to resolve problems in camps as they encounter them, however there are several
gaps between stated objectives, PR spin on what they report, and transparency in sharing
this data.
Ansel explains the problems in his Haiti Rewired post on what IOM got all wrong regarding
a camp eviction case. What happens, and what IOM is aware of, is like the mainstream news
media not covering developing stories until they become a major crisis. There is a lack of
internal communication within the UN clusters, such that many officials do not believe facts
presented in official reports, from their own organizations. It could be they have never
viewed those reports.
36 Some have had this happen to them multiple times, as they have the misfortune of finding sites that look like
they can camp there, but are in fact under the thumb of alleged land owner with thug gangs soon to drive out
the next bunch of people there.
37 Linked In made what they called an improvement to group discussions. In the process of doing so they
deleted hundreds of thousands of discussions which had not had any postings in a week or so. In the Haiti
discussion lists, those deletions included many threads which had been used to organize links to related topics.

A group of NGOs,38 specializing in justice issues, filed a legal action in early November 2010
through the OAS39 with the IACHR,40 claiming grievous violations of the human rights of
IDPs41 in the tent cities of Haiti.42 In the middle of November, the IACHR ruled that the
GoH43 needed to take immediate action to fix these problems, and keep IACHR informed
on their progress.
WATER Challenges (0 Nov 12)

This topic has come up in multiple venues, and may ultimately have a separate research
notes paper by me. For now, my Guide to Haiti Aid Info has links to the people who
are doing work in this area, and my Haiti Cholera Epidemic Info has links for people
researching this issue.
Terminology Challenges (1 Jan 05)

We are familiar with many concepts, and words, which may be used with other meanings in
other nations and cultures.
According to Brookings Institute Sep 2010 analysis of burning issues for Haiti recovery and
reconstruction,44 many Haitians’ homes were destroyed by the earthquake, but they have
remained on or near their property. In other words, they are homeless but not displaced.
The word ‘homeless’ sometimes implies that people owned a home which was subsequently
lost, either thru bank foreclosure or natural disaster destruction. That is not an accurate
assumption in Haiti where many people rented homes from others or held the land through
customary land tenure, or simply squatted on the margins of urban slums.
Many people escaped areas of the country devastated by the earthquake to go live with
friends or relatives in some other place. Those people are displaced but not homeless,
because they are living in someone else home, frequently with extreme malnutrition, since
Haiti was 80% unemployed before the earthquake, which made their economy much worse.
Most displaced are also homeless. Many Haitians have been displaced by economic
dislocations prior to the latest disaster, of which Haiti has had a series in recent years, 45 and
many were homeless prior to the Jan 2010 earthquake. Much recent humanitarian aid has
abandoned victims of prior disasters, just tried to help victims of most recent disaster,
although both sets of victims are in similar dire circumstances.
38 Non-Government Organizations.
39 Organization of American States.
40 Inter American Commission on Human Rights
41 Internally (within a nation) Displaced Persons = refugees in their own nation.
42 Al Mac has copies of the relevant documents in his “Accountability” collection.
43 Government of Haiti.
44 Brookings Report reviewed by Al Mac on Haiti Rewired Blog and Yahoo Group Haiti Disaster Recovery
Research [HDRR].
45 My document, on what is known about 2010 Presidential election candidates, includes a section on the
history of recent disasters in Haitian history – natural and man-made.

People with no legal status: commonly referred to as squatters, for example, ACTED
identified “beach-dwellers” with no legal status but with long term occupancy in the zone. In
reality, the majority of people may have no official legal status, with respect to where they are
living, BUT we can consider squatters as those with the least evidence to show tenure
security. These people existed before and after the Haiti earthquake.
In the Architecture Group of Haiti Rewired,46 several people think “squatters” is a
particularly hostile label for people who are refugees in their own country, and have
suggested that “nomad” is a better term for people who are driven from shelter to shelter
like cattle. I think we need different terminology for people who are voluntarily behaving a
particular way, and people who are in that boat due to some disaster, or abuse by an
undemocratic government.
Haiti Terminology Concepts (1 Feb 17)

Many professions use Acronyms and specialized terminology which is alien to people from
outside those professions. This phenomenon dominates many UN NGO and government
reports to the point of rendering them unreadable to most of the general public. I have a
separate document translating such terminology which I have encountered so far in
hundreds of UN and NGO and GoH documents, but here include those I consider most
relevant to the topic of this particular research focus.
Most of us learned a lot in school which was rather superficial theories of economics,
sociology, science, geopolitics, etc. understood at the time, then as academia grows more
distant into our past, our understanding of the world becomes limited by our profession, and
time to delve into other sciences. Thus, there’s a lot going on which we do not understand.
Hopefully some of the terminology in this glossary will be a window into areas where we
ought to further explore explanations for the strange or even alien realities of how come
relief and recovery in Haiti does not measure up to standards that seem self-evident.
1 year anniversary of the 2010 Jan earthquake = We saw an infinity of
organizations posting progress reports on their contributions to Haiti relief and recovery. I
posted links and mini-reviews of some of this info to the Yahoo Group HDRR (Haiti
Disaster Recovery Research). Some notable to housing challenges included:
 US Government USAID report.47
46 http://haitirewired.wired.com/group/architectureforhaiti
47
80k 2 pages
http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JARD-8D33LV/$File/full_report.pdf
For more information on USAID/OFDA shelter and settlements sector activities, please visit:
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/sectors/shelter.html

Access to Services Infrastructure48 = World Vision notes that: ‘Efforts to provide basic
services like sanitation and drainage are frequently held up by disputes over land. Planning for
longer-term transitional shelter cannot take place in the absence of land on which the displaced
can be accommodated’.
Accessibility for disabled includes

1. blind, on crutches, wheel chair, elderly, pregnant … none discriminated against
2. build shelter higher than anticipated flood waters
3. build slope for wheel chair etc. which can in fact be navigated
4. consider visual, hearing, speech, mental and intellectual impairments
5. emergency exits, but infants cannot wander off
6. computer access practical for people with disabilities such as inability to use
hands, or see screen, or have severe color blindness
ACTED = Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (HQ = Paris France) 49
AL MAC = Alister Wm Macintyre
BIM = Building Information Modeling

Building Standards need to be satisfactory to protect occupants against whatever risks
might happen anywhere, and also what is of particular high risk in Haiti, or wherever the
structures are being installed. This includes: Accessibility (see examples of disabled people
elsewhere in my glossary); Break-ins (such as by rapists and muggers); Earthquake; Eviction
by Thug Gangs; Fire (smoke alarm, more than one exit route, so not get cut-off); Flood
(upper floor or attic windows can support emergency exit); Insects (such as Termites vs.
Wood construction); Wind (tropical storms). Electrical wiring should have 3 hole wall plugs.
Grey water support if practical. See http://www.unesco-ipred.org/gtfbc/ for building
standards around our world. Some types of buildings, such as schools, have additional
“child safe” requirements.
C+ (1 Jan 11)
Cadastral or Cadastre means Land surveying in the Digital Age. Think combination
good geographic map, and clear demarcations of plots of land identified, that link to
ownership records.50 It commonly includes details of land ownership, land tenure, GPS or
other coordinates, dimensions, landmarks. Perhaps include legal use of the land, such as
zoning. Also see Land Register.
CARE = Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere
CARICOM = Caribbean Community
49 http://www.acted.org
50 Wikipedia; Free Dictionary. How Cadastre system works in France. OAS conference report, indicator
international actors interested in resolving Haiti challenges.

CCPR = International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
CIA = US Central Intelligence Agency
COHR = Center on Housing Rights and Evictions
“Complicated” sounds to an American audience like someone being slippery or evasive

or talking down to the simple, genuine, honest people who just want a straight answer, 51
even when it really is complicated. The real world is complicated. It always has been. Politics
are complicated, as are issues of race; ethnicity; culture; religion; and humanitarian aid work.
Construction Challenges exist for rebuilding Haiti. There is lack of consensus with
many issues. Haiti is allegedly virtually devoid of local building materials of appropriate
quality for environmental conditions builders must take into account: steep terrain, torrential
rains, heat, and even salt air.52 Deforestation complicates the environmental conditions.
“Counterfeiting Skills” = the abilities some people have in creating documentation

proving they have ownership rights to some land.
CRC = UNICEF Convention on Rights of the Child http://www.unicef.org/crc/
D+ (0 Nov 15)
Debris – what can be in a Disaster Debris Pile?
Dead bodies, and body parts (some contaminated by disease)
E-wastes such as computers, telephones and TVs
“White goods” such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers
Hazardous materials such as bleach
Radioactive materials from hospitals, industries and laboratories
Explosive gases from households, hospitals, industries
Petroleum products from gas stations, power plants
PCBs from transformers
Ammunition from houses, army camps and police stations

Disaster Rescue workers waste products, without garbage pickup
DGI = Direction Générale des Impôts, manages state-owned properties and is

responsible for property tax collection, but does such an incomplete job that many Haitian
municipalities have taken over DGI’s work.
51 “Simple” in American Culture.

52 There is heavy research being conducted in this area, with results reported on Haiti Rewired.

Displaced persons53 = persons who, for different reasons or circumstances, have

been compelled to leave their homes. They may or may not reside in their country of origin,
but are not necessarily regarded legally as refugees. Assessments by CARE have
shown that owner-occupiers and land tenants were more
likely to have access to their original plots and housing
materials. Building tenants tended to be in less resilient
self-built shelters because they were less likely to
salvage building materials and more likely to be displaced
from the site of their original home.
DPC = Haiti Department of Civil Protection (Police) Civil Protection Directorate

Due Process of Law = administration of justice according to established rules and
consistent principles, often with constitutional guarantees.
E+ (0 Nov 15)
Economy: Before the Jan 2010 earthquake, Haitians had 80% unemployment. Afterwards
it was much worse. Growing the economy is a major priority, since it will make it practical
for Haitians to move into alternative housing as it gets developed. Haitian authorities
announced their version of a stimulus package to boost the Haitian economy.
Election Sham … I have said the Election system in Haiti reminds me of the old
Soviet Union … what I mean by that is that everyone knew in that system, you either
voted for the dictator, or you were dead. In Haiti, you are not allowed to vote for anyone
but a member of the Soviet Party equivalent. The system is rigged to block participation
by parties and leaders whom 90% of the people want as their leaders. Haiti is not a real
democracy, with constitutional government, rule of law. 54
Emergency Shelter = Tents and Tarps protection from ordinary Haiti weather.
Protection from NOTHING ELSE.
Eminent Domain = The right of a government to seize private property for public use,
in exchange for payment of fair market price, to the legal owner of the land.
Equitable human settlements55 are those in which all people, without

discrimination of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability or other status, have equal
54 More info: see my other research document on Haiti 2010 election; Upside Down World on Silent Coup in
Haiti.
55 UN Habitat Agenda.

access to housing, infrastructure, health services, adequate food and water, education and
open spaces.
In addition, such human settlements provide:
 equal opportunity for a productive and freely chosen livelihood;
 equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance, the
ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate
technologies;
 equal opportunity for personal, spiritual, religious, cultural and social
development;
 equal opportunity for participation in public decision-making;
 equal rights and obligations with regard to the conservation and use of natural and
cultural resources;
 and equal access to mechanisms to ensure that rights are not violated.
The empowerment of women and their full participation on the basis of equality in all
spheres of society, whether rural or urban, are fundamental to sustainable human
settlements development.
Eviction+ (0 Oct 20)

Eviction is when the (alleged) owner or manager of real estate property
arranges for the removal of the current resident occupier of the property.
In the developed or civilized world, an eviction process involves ample advance

notification by the owner or manager to the tenant, and possibly voluntary
departure. Otherwise, there is a process administered by the court system to
evaluate whether the tenant or manager needs to be forced to do something.56
Eviction can be because the lease bans pets in the building, then there is a blind
visitor with a guide dog, and the tenant feels that is an exception to the lease
mandate.
Frequently there has been a dispute about a landlord repairing a serious

situation, where the tenant withholds rent pending resolution, then the landlord
tries to evict because of the unpaid rent. The court can then review the
grievances of both sides, to determine who is in the wrong and how to resolve
the dispute.
In the developing world, such as Haiti, the court system usually plays no role
whatsoever in evictions. The (alleged) property owner, or agents (typically thug
gangs) of the (alleged) owner, use whatever (often brutal) means they deem
necessary to remove unwanted residents of their property.
All over Haiti, there are thug-gangs driving tent city occupants off the land
claimed by owners, whose documentation of ownership is usually a farce, where
56 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eviction

the evacuees lose their meager possessions when they are driven off brutally,
and need to find some place else to pitch their survival location. More often than
not, it is a space now vacant because some other victims were brutally driven off.
So the cycle continues.
Extremely Vulnerable Groups comprise:
a. Female- and Child-headed households57

b. Households of six or more, with four children of school age
c. Physically and mentally disabled
d. Elderly
Fermage is a type of land lease combined with full title for a house, sometimes with an
option to buy land in future. It is not strictly formal, but not considered illegal in most cases.
According to some estimates around 80% of residents in Port-au-Prince have a fermage
contract with the option to buy. 58
Forced Evictions+ (0 Oct 20)

Forced Evictions (see Evictions) are when people are removed from where
they have been living or working, without due process of law. 59 This is common
in some nations, like Haiti, where there is no such thing as “due process of law”
for housing or tenure rights.60 Al Mac research notes document “Haiti Housing
Human Rights (H3R)” explores what exactly are rights “on the books” and
are they only suggestions?
FY = Fiscal Year
G+ (0 Oct 01)
GCST = The Global Campaign for Secure Tenure, organized thru UN-Habitat advocates
housing rights for everyone
GCST promotes negotiation as an alternative to violent forced eviction,
innovative tenure systems for the urban poor, women’s equal secure tenure, tools
to facilitate collaboration between the urban poor, support NGOs and government
at all levels, slum upgrading frameworks, and legal and regulatory reforms.
57Yes, there are “households” in Haiti with no adults. To locate them, start with the UN “red zones” which
are areas of Haiti which have been designated as “forbidden to help those people” then go looking inside them
for street kids who have no homes, and only get help from each other. I have found only conspiracy theories to
explain the phenomena of the “red zones.”
58
UN-HABITAT, Strategic Citywide Spatial Planning: A Situational Analysis of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 2009.
59 Center on Housing Rights and Evictions.

60
Ronald Baudin, Haiti's Minister of Economy and Finance, talks about this in a Haiti Libre
article needing a better translation.

GCUG = The Global Campaign on Urban Governance, organized thru UN-Habitat

GCUG promotes participatory urban governance (strategies, forums, tools),
women's political representation and participation in decision-making, gender
budgeting, public auditing, and other mechanisms ensuring greater accountability and
transparency.
GIS = Geographical Information System
GoH = Government of Haiti
GPS = Global Positioning System
H+ (0 Nov 14)
HDRR = Haiti Disaster Recovery Research group on Yahoo
HEDR = Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief group on Linked In
Homeless people implies: previously they owned or rented a home which was
subsequently lost, or they were forced to leave against their will. For example, the building
was foreclosed by a financial institution, or the home was destroyed in an earthquake. In
Haiti there were multi-story buildings which collapsed. The people on the ground floor get
to keep the right to be there, even though the building is now gone, while people on higher
floors, which got destroyed, had their corresponding rights also destroyed. 61
Housing Rights: Under International Law, there is a right to have a safe and secure
home, where people can live with dignity, to not be subject to arbitrary or forced eviction.
This s one of the most widely violated human rights. 62
Housing Rights Links:
 Homeless International is a charity based in Britain which works with local partner
organizations all over the world, including Latin America.
 Shack Dwellers International addresses the needs of Slum dwellers all over the
developing world.
HR = Haiti Rewired
IAT = International Action Ties, a grassroots community development organization

addressing root causes of poverty by working towards structural change and community
mobilization. www.internationalactionties.org
IDP = Internally Displaced Persons (refugees in their home nation).
IOM = International Organization for Migration (UN agency in charge of refugees and
displaced persons)
61 Canadian Radio program on the “Homeless in Haiti” challenges:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2010/12/07/special-homeless-in-haiti/
62 Center on Housing Rights and Evictions.

Land+ (0 Oct 20)

Land Ownership – Here is a 1990 study of Haiti Land ownership in Port au Prince, and
also the structures built on the land.63
Land Reform is often fueled by the notion that historical land owners got control of a
nation’s wealth by strong armed tactics, where all people of a democratic region ought to
have equal access to deciding how the land is to be used. Land makes up three quarters 64 of
the wealth of most developing nations and plays crucial social, customary, and religious
roles. Land Reform often consists of:
 National clear definition of what property rights are, and what the rights are of
people using real property, such as the need to justify to a judge or magistrate why
anyone should be evicted from where they are residing, or performing economic
activities. Provide a system for transferring ownership at reasonable costs.
 Developing a registry of the nation’s geography, spelling out who owns which land,
and who has what rights to use the land in what manner (residence, farming, mining,
etc.).
 Instituting a system of government, where there is registration of which people have
what rights to what land, such as inheritance by spouses and children.
 Instituting a system of justice, where people at the bottom of the economic ladder
can have rights guaranteed, and have a means of disputing arbitrary actions by more
powerful interests.
Land Register is similar to the Cadastre.65 Where the Cadastre focuses on the technical
geographical description of the real estate, the Register focuses on history of ownership and
tenure access.
Land Tenure Security refers to the right of individuals and groups of people to
effective protection by their government against forcible evictions. 66 In urban settings, land
tenure is often insecure for slum dwellers and for the poor. In rural settings, land tenure is
also often insecure for the poor, as well as for women, who face problems such as unlawful
evictions by family members after the death of a husband or father. 67
MDG = Millennium Development Goal.68
63http://www.facebook.com/notes/haiti-next-door/who-owns-port-au-prince-summary-of-the-economcis-
and-politics-of-housing-from-si/164902446862906
64 The Invisible Line: Land Reform, Land Tenure Security and Land Registration.
65 http://www.just.ee/7881
66 United Nations Human Settlement Program, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human
Settlements 2007, abridged ed., 9, http://www.unhabitat.org/downloads/docs/GRHS.2007.Abridged.Vol.2.pdf.

67
Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity
68 For more information on MDG: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

MINUSTAH = Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation d’Haïti (United Nations
Stabilization Mission in Haiti) (UN Peacekeepers)
MoUs = Memoranda of Understanding
N+ (0 Dec 26)
NGO = Non-Governmental Organization
“No one in charge” – When an important function of government, disaster relief,

recovery, etc. has no plan, no agency responsible for it, no leader, then the top leaders of
government, disaster relief, recovery, etc. get flooded with contacts by people who want to
help, and the top leaders can be clueless how to cope. As of eight months after the Jan 2010
earthquake, no one is in charge of Haiti housing, land ownership, rubble removal, border
control. Several competing interests are allegedly in charge of Haiti health, education,
security.
Who should be in charge? Minister of Interior? Special Deputy office until the disaster
problems have all been resolved?
Nomad = a term for people with no permanent home, who by choice, or by others
forcing them, are compelled to move from temporary home to temporary home. This term
is considered to be less hostile than calling them “squatters.”
OAS = Organization of American States

OCHA United Nations Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (UN agency that
is over ALL the humanitarian activity in Haiti)
OECD = Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OHFCOH = Operation Hope for Children of Haiti
ONACA = Office National du Cadastre (National Cadastre69 office) in the Ministry of
Public Works.
OTI = Office of Transition Initiatives (of USAID)
PH = Plan Haiti
PUICA = The Civil Registry Program, is a project currently being implemented by the
OAS in Haiti to improve a digital civil registry system to normalize the situation aggravated by the catastrophe
that affected the country earlier in 2010, which led to the collapse of public offices and the lost of citizens'
identity cards. The program's immediate goal is to establish a system to update the electoral census for the
upcoming presidential and legislative elections in November. For more info see OAS news on Relief Web
R+ (0 Dec 29)
Real Estate = Real Property owned on land, such as the land itself, and improvements on
it like buildings and agriculture.70
69 See Cadastre definition.

I have seen many variants on what the Reconstruction Commission will be called, or
is named. Here is an official list of the members. It currently has 24 members entitled to vote
(12 Haitian leaders and 12 representatives of nations promising funds) and four members from
other sectors without voting.
Recovery comes after Rescue and Relief. The damaged infrastructure needs to
be rebuilt back better than it was before, so the people are less likely to suffer so
much in the next natural disaster.
Redistribution of Wealth: Stephen Nuchia eloquently writes:71 QUOTE

If there was ever a situation that called for a "redistribution of wealth" this was it. They
would have been better off if they had taken the opportunity the quake presented and reset
the whole land title system to zero. Find a way to "make whole" the key players among the
landed gentry, and give everyone forty acres. Too late now of course. 72
Yes, it will take decades to clean all the titles. But legislation enabling an arbitration process,
and an economy which justifies the effort, would get the ball rolling better than trying to do
it all through a central bureaucracy.73 UNQUOTE
Rehabilitation – Different people use same terminology with somewhat different

meanings.
 The full, or at least partial, restoration of degraded landscapes and/or

impaired ecosystem services to their state prior, for example, to the land
being occupied as a site for transitional shelter for displaced people.
 Upgrading existing buildings to accommodate evolving needs, such as
support for disabled people, support for new kinds of telecommunications,
improve fire safety.
Relief typically comes after Rescue but before Recovery. Until damaged infrastructure and
economy can be rebuilt, the people need delivery of essential supplies (medical, food, water,
shelter) in such a way that it does not sabotage recovery (such as killing the local agriculture
by competing with capitalism to its destruction).
Relocation Camps, for Haiti disaster victims, were designated “safer” areas than
where they were found at risk of flooding, mudslides, etc. where the “more risky” areas
could not be mitigated, or repaired. So the people at more risk were given some choices:
 Return to wherever they were before, if their homes now designated as safe, and they
were economically able to move there (pay the rent with their livelihoods gone);
70 Here’s a site which tries to provide further education.

71 In Facebook discussion of credit stimulus article.
72 Is it in fact too late?
73 Haiti already has an abundance of central bureaucracies competing with each other to complicate this topic.

 Move in with some other host family, such as in rural areas, which were not getting
sufficient aid to displaced victims;
 Or move to the “safer” relocation camps.
Repair + (1 Jan 16)

Repair
Currently the stages, after disaster, are
 Rescue (removing people from under collapsed buildings, path of flood, etc.);
 Relief (providing minimum care until reconstruction};
 Reconstruction (build back better, which may never get fully implemented).
There needs to be an extra step inserted after Relief, before Reconstruction.

I call it Repair (critical infrastructure, such as sanitation and communication, places for
medical helicopters to land). Repair means raising standards so society can function better
while working towards Reconstruction.
Some people might call this stage “Transitional” meaning what is practical while waiting on
Permanent solutions, but I feel that in Haiti far too many people are waiting, and not enough
are actually working towards permanent solutions.
In Haiti, there are roads which flood in rainy season. Their elevation could be raised by
rubble from the quake, unusable for other purposes.
With the cholera epidemic, many people die because they cannot get to a medical facility in
time, because facilities are few and far between. Medical clinics need critical supplies, which
cannot be delivered by air, must be driven multiple hours over-land. There are roads which
need 4x4, normal vehicles cannot travel there.
The drainage canals have no guard rails, so every time a town floods, many people get swept
into the canals.
Rescue typically comes before Relief. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, there are
people at extreme risk of dying, because they are buried by an earthquake, mudslide, etc. or
need to be rapidly moved out of the way of a flood.
S+ (0 Dec 26)
Secure Tenure = Freedom from fear of forced eviction.74 Millions of people live
in constant fear of being forcibly evicted, without any warning, or due process,
without any compensation, alternative housing, or ability to salvage their
74 COHR on violations of human housing rights.

possessions. Although international law courts have repeatedly declared forced

evictions to be a gross and systematic violation of human rights,75 there are
multiple stories out of Haiti, where the UN military has been used to assist in this
behavior.76
SHELTER
 When we see the word “Shelter” in UN NGO Gov documents about Haiti, it usually
means “Emergency Shelter” from rains, such as tents tarps etc. ideally on land
not at high risk of flooding or mudslides or landslides.
 When we see OTHER folks using the word “Shelter”, they usually mean “Housing”
that meets Building Standards that includes protection from Hurricanes,
Earthquakes, nite rapes, surprise evictions, and other hazards that are normal
reasonable expectations for the people of Haiti.
SHELTER SAFER STRATEGY OF GOVERNMENT OF HAITI

This strategy proposes five basic options for the affected population:
1. Return to a safe home, after evaluation by trained engineers
2. Return to a safe plot, after debris has been removed from the site
3. Stay with a host family
4. Stay in a current spontaneous settlement, if conditions at the site can be made to
meet minimum standards in the medium term
5. For those who do not have another option, move to a temporary relocation site
planned by GoH, implemented by UN and NGOs.
Sources Referenced, in various documents, can include sources I have not yet located,
but hope to view in the future.77 Apparently some NGOs have independently researched
issues, then shared them with UN clusters. Their documents may or may not be on sites of
NGOs or UN clusters.
Split Ownership is an idea I got from Mike Perrett.78 It may be when trying to settle
ownership disputes in Haiti that two or more competing interests appear to present equally
valid claims. Surely a percentage ownership new agreement can be made, and recorded with
Governments additions attached, such as a time frame during which quake survivors have
guaranteed housing tenancy security at a rental price to be paid or subsidized in such a way
that the owners get predictable income, and the subsidizers have well defined payment
schedule. If and when the tenants get decent jobs, they can take over some of the payments,
and get a longer time period guaranteed tenancy security agreement.
Squatter (see Nomad) = a hostile label for people who have no permanent home.
75 http://ijdh.org/archives/15413
76 Haiti Rewired thread on Forced Evictions of Quake Survivors from Tent City Camps with no advance
notice.
77 CARE; CordAid; informal working group on Land and Space issues; GOAL documents
on local government structure.

78 Mike is one of my contacts on Facebook.

SUF = Slum Upgrading Facility of UN-Habitat.79 JUNE 2006 Issue: Pdf.

SWS = Severe Weather Shelter
T+ (0 Oct 01)
T-Shelter = Transitional Shelter (theoretically quake and cyclone proof shelter in
Haiti for people displaced by last such disaster) until Permanent replacements for the
disaster can be resolved. (However, the general public is not being provided with evidence of
quality, we are supposed to take their word for it that they know what they are doing.)
Tenure80
 Permission to use or access something, such as land for particular purposes, like
mining or farming. An element of property rights, or contracts.
 Employee status, like teacher rights.
 Period of time this status to continue.
Tenure Security does not necessarily mean formally registered, legally recognised,
inheritable land ownership forever. It means a transitional agreement or arrangement to
make sure that people can restart their livelihoods and be confident that they will not face
forced or sudden involuntary eviction and loss of livelihood as they recover from the
earthquake and plan their next steps.
“Thug Power” = an excess of physical force available to some alleged land owners, to
enforce their claim to what purposes their land may be used for.
U+ (0 Nov 14)
UN = United Nations
UN Clusters – see Al Mac other document Guide to navigating UN sites.
UNDP = United Nations Development Programme
Unoccupied lands = a reality which occurs when the economic system encourages real
estate owners for owning property, but not use it for anything, and imposes high costs if do
use it, such that they are likely to not use it unless they have an extreme economic value to
do so.
We see this in Haiti, where wealthy families want to own land, do not want to use it
themselves, and do not want quake survivors to use it for tent cities.
Thanks to Facebook’s Mike Perrett for bringing this to my attention.

79
80 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tenure

We see this in the USA, where banks foreclose homes whose owners could not pay the
mortgage, the tenants able to keep paying the rent, but the banks evict them, because the
banks would rather have the homes sit empty, inviting squatters and crimes like drug users,
than have some family occupy it, pay rent, and keep the property in good condition.
Consider tax rate systems, where unused or poorly used real estate has next to no taxes, but
productively used space has high taxes. The owner must make enough profits so the tax is
not a problem. Marginal profits + High Taxes and Insurance and other overhead costs can
drive the low income effort out of business.
A partial explanation for this reality is found in Georgist or Georgism Economics, based on
the teachings of Henry George who was a contemporary of Karl Marx (economic theory of
communist nations) and John Maynard Keynes (whose economic policies now rule the
West). These three individuals viewed the same reality, but came up with totally different
theories on what was in the best interests of mankind, the environment, quality of life, a
huge spectrum of issues.
In my opinion, Haiti would be a heck of a lot better off today if they were operating on
Georgist Economics than Keynesian, but with the power structure it is today in the
international community, I cannot see this happening. We can compare the economic
theories to explain how come we have some messes, and activities that appear unwise.
Unowned Land – Is there such a thing as real estate (land on planet Earth, not at
bottom of Ocean) that is not under the jurisdiction of some nation, and for which there is
no owner? When an owner dies, with no heirs, doesn’t the state reclaim their property?
This is an issue in Haiti, because there are people who claim that some land has no owner, so
they will grab it and use for their purposes. Often there are other people who dispute this
interpretation, leading to a Civil War between the competing interests.81
USAID = United States Agency for International Development
Vulnerability:82 According to UN-Habitat , before the earthquake householders

perceived the risk of eviction to be low and even the poorest slowly invested in
Heavy weight but very poor quality structures that were highly vulnerable to
collapse. In addition, overcrowding can lead to the occupation of high-risk zones
by the most vulnerable.
WTC = World Trade Center, demolished in 9/11. The amount of rubble debris there
seemed astronomical, but was puny volume compared to what came with Haiti earthquake.
This comparison makes sense for discussing philosophies of what is the best way to handle
the removal of the rubble debris.
81 Ganthier scandal.

Zone Maps are being issued by the Shelter Cluster through Relief Web. These are for
individual cities or communities showing which organizations are building shelters where.
No numbers are given. Just the actual builder organizations, and the funding or
coordinating agencies.
Al Mac Housing Research Notes (1 Feb 17)

Here’s a directory of Al Mac Research Notes Documents relevant to Haiti Housing challenges.
(All are in Word, except where specified otherwise, such as Excel.)
 “Glossary Acronyms Haiti” = translation of Acronyms commonly found in many

UN and NGO documents.83 This overall document will eventually duplicate all the
terminology here, in addition to terminology covering a much vaster spectrum of
topics.
 “Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges” = that’s this document you reading here. It
consolidates common facts, and theories, common to the collection of Haiti
Housing Challenge research notes documents which focus on the various different
problems, pros & cons of alternative ideas how to solve them.
 Guide to Navigating UN and NGO sources of Info on Haiti, including those
relevant to Housing challenges, and many other areas.
 “H3R = Haiti Housing Human Rights” research notes document on what the UN
and Haiti law have to say.
 Haiti Documents Directory: summarization of UN and NGO documents Al has
downloaded while researching Haiti in 2010, including many challenges in addition
to Housing.
 Haiti Maps directory
 Haiti T-Shelter research document = which NGOs doing what where.84
 Relocation Geography = what’s happening with Haitians relocated from “more
risky” camps to “more safe” camps.
 Sitrep (Situation Report) … Al found time to do this back in May 2010, containing
statistics collected so far, showing Haiti big picture.
 Transitional NGOs Excel developed as an intermediate aid for T-shelter research
 Weather Science Haiti
Suggested Reference Documents (1 Feb 17)

In my presentation, I shall assume the reader has access to the equivalent of other key
documents I have discovered, obtained, or developed, 85 while researching Haiti Disaster Aid
issues:
83 This is one of Al Mac specialized research documents, which typically will be uploaded to same kind of place
as this one on Haiti land ownership challenges.
84 This research document is excessively large due to embedded other documents, so we are more constrained
where it is practical to upload it, until the housing documents restructuring split is completed.

 1 Year … a collection of reports from a large number of organizations involved in

Haiti, published close to the one year anniversary of the Jan 2010 earthquake. Many
of them available through Relief Web. I reviewed scores of them, shared my reviews
with Yahoo group: Haiti Disaster Recovery Research (HDRR). 86
 Accessibility for disabled in home design PDF
 Accessibility guidelines for use in disaster relief PDF
 Acronyms – see Glossary.
 Al documents library – see Reference Directory of Documents
 Articles which try to explain the Haiti land tenure problem, and how the Jan 12
quake made it worse.
o http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ADGO-
873PR9?OpenDocument (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)
 Building Codes international directory of what is needed to protect against
earthquakes, hurricanes, and other threats.
 Cholera Epidemic – Al’s research notes.
 Concepts – see Glossary
 Delaleu Plan for solving Haiti challenges, including land tenure ownership
documentation.87
 Diaspora – Al’s notes links (not much there yet) to their organizations.
 Documents Reference Directory: summarization of UN and NGO documents Al
has downloaded while researching Haiti in 2010
 “Glossary Acronyms Haiti” WORD … translation of Acronyms commonly found in
many UN and NGO documents.88 This overall document will eventually duplicate all
the terminology here, in addition to terminology covering a much vaster spectrum of
topics.
 Environmental issues in Haiti reconstruction – I plan to be posting info on this topic
to Haiti Rewired group on Agriculture and Conservation topics.
 Haiti Aid Guide to Navigating UN and NGO sources of Info.
 Haiti T-Shelter research document = which NGOs doing what where.89
 Hurricane Shelter WORD documents from a discussion at the end of March 2010.
 Land Tenure Security and Agricultural Productivity
 Land Tenure Residential Security UN Habitat Word 34 pages.
90
 Map Leogane Flood Risk T-Shelters – overlay flood zones with rebuilding zones,
shows that rebuilding coincides with high risk more floods.
85 It is my intention to include links to these documents in: Yahoo HDRR Group; Haiti Rewired threads; Plan
Haiti; and/or my document with UN report navigating tips. They all were in Linked In HEDR group, until a
Linked In “improvement” deleted hundreds of thousands of Haiti how-to references, and other topics.
86http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HaitiDisasterRecoveryResearch/
87 Uploaded to Yahoo Group (HDRR) Haiti Disaster Recovery Research in Files / Haiti Election Info /
Candidate Platforms.
88 This is one of Al Mac specialized research documents, which typically will be uploaded to same kind of place
as this one on Haiti land ownership challenges.

89 This research document is excessively large due to embedded other documents, so we are more constrained
where it is practical to upload it.

90 Thanks to Facebook contact Mike Perrett for bringing this document to my attention.

 Map Shelter – Maps where various kinds of shelters are in the works in Haiti.
 Map Transitional Shelter PDF 2010 Apr 26: 40 NGOs which plan to implement
Transitional Shelter in Haiti, and are primary starting info for T-shelter research.
 PDNA PDF 115 pages Gov of Haiti Plan for the rebuilding of Haiti.
 Photos of transitional shelters which have been built in Haiti.
 Red X RFA: documents provided by Red Cross in their $ 30 million project to fund
transitional housing in Haiti, where they were seeking expertise to help them.
 Reference Directory of UN and NGO documents Al has downloaded while
researching Haiti in 2010.91
 Relocation Geography – one of Al Mac research notes documents, by different
housing themes.
 Rubble Clearing info from Haiti Recovery Group.
 Shelter Transitional standards WORD check list
 Shelter Transitional additional documents
https://sites.google.com/site/shelterhaiti2010/twig-1/tshelter
 Shelter Weather “maps” where buildings evaluated to identify capacity for Haitians in
case of severe weather, not yet structured to make it possible for them to find these
shelters.
 Sitrep (Situation Report) … Al found time to do this back in May 2010, containing
statistics collected so far, showing Haiti big picture.
 Situation Report 2010 April 27 IOM (International Organization for Migration) PDF which
says there are 13 sites designated for Transitional Shelters, talks about some of them,
and is a bit vague on the issues.
 Situation Report 2010 July 15 Habitat for Humanity 2.2 Meg 5 page PDF shared
the remarkable statistic that “According to U.N. estimates, less than 5 percent of Haiti’s land is
legally registered” (see section on Pathways to Permanence).
 Tracking in Haiti April 17 V3 OCHA PDF (SSIDs and P Codes)
 Transitional NGOs XL developed as an intermediate aid for T-shelter research.
 UN Report Navigation Tips document by Al Mac.
 US Inspector General (IG) 25 page report on USAID and partners “Cash for Work” in
Haiti http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MUMA-89R45F/$File/full_report.pdf
Be sure to tell Al Mac if you are looking for any of these, and where you prefer me to upload
them, if you need to see any, that you have been unable to locate.
World Bank (1 Feb 17)

Once upon a time there was an interest group on Facebook, hosted by a person with The
World Bank. It was called Group on Housing and Reconstruction Handbook. When it
closed, its members were invited to subscribe to related news by e-mail from The World
Bank. “The Facebook group on the Housing and Reconstruction Handbook will be closed
shortly. If you are interested in keeping up with the World Bank's work on this area in the
East Asia & Pacific region, please sign up for email alerts at”
91Labeled “Al’s docs” for convenience, they are really docs developed by hundreds of organizations working
on rescue, relief, and recovery for Haiti.

http://bit.ly/aXQZru
To support the Government of Haiti's decision-making on the recovery and reconstruction
operations, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) decided to
make available expert advice and global best practices to the Government by mobilizing the
World Bank Global Expert Team (GET) (and also procuring external expertise where in-
house expertise was not available) to prepare Knowledge/Good Practice Notes on ten
identified, 'burning' post-disaster recovery and reconstruction issues in a time-bound
manner.92 These knowledge notes covered a number of key sectors including:
 Building Seismic Safety Assessment;
 Debris Management;
 Environmental and Social Assessment;
 Experience with Post Disaster Income Support Programs;
 Land Tenure;
 Management of Recovery Managing Post-Disaster Aid;
 Rebuild or Relocate;
 Transitional Shelter,
 Helping Women and Children to Recover and
 Build Resilient Communities.
Mixed Terminology (1 Feb 17)

Here are some topics I am struggling to grasp, which cross thresh-hold of Haiti
Reconstruction challenges, and chaotic world economy. They play a role both in Haiti and
beyond.
92
Relief Web May 2010 overview not published until September 2010 (Source:
OCHA/Relief Web); Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR);
Government of Haiti (Govt. Haiti); The World Bank Group.

Human Frailties (1 Jan 17)

Before the Jan 2010 Haiti earthquake grabbed my attention, I had been studying causes of
the Great Recession. I believe there are some lessons there, which apply to the disaster
which is disaster relief.
In summary, major causes of the Great Recession, in my opinion, include:
 The generations which had lived through the Great Depression, and remembered
types of activities which fuel human greed, which can provide short term
improvements in individual economic conditions, but can be disasters long term,
those human generations had died out, no longer influencing decisions of their
descendents. People, in ignorance of the consequences, were making decisions,
fueled by greed, to improve their current conditions, in ignorance of long term risks
and consequences. We can expect 80 some years from now, the world will suffer
another Economic disaster comparable to the Great Depression and Great
Recession, depending on how well medical science improves our life spans. In
other words, if medical science does a great job, it might be 120 years before the
generations which are now living through the Great Recession die out, and human
history repeats once again.
 If a company or government agency is going to invest heavily, or participate heavily
in some area of human activity, there ought to be people at the top of the
organization who have a good understanding of that area, its risks benefits trade-
offs. In recent years, financial institutions have been heavily participating in areas
where there was no-one on board of directors or top management who understood
those areas. The theory was that they hired staff who understood them. But this is
an enormous risk. If you have worked as a professional in your career, you know
full well that there are more areas of specialty than any top manager can know, so
they hire a spectrum of professionals to handle each, rarely for their expert
knowledge advice, usually because they can do the work. We often are asked to do
something, contrary to our professional education. We may reason with the boss, as
to why this or that is a bad decision, but the boss often says, diplomatically, that we
work for him, do what he says. He does not work for us, do what we say. Thus
decisions are made by managers and directors, who know nothing about some topic,
such decisions can be disastrous in the long run. This problem of management
knowledge structure is also true with non-profits.
 A parallel can be made between buying and selling stocks and bonds on margin,
which was a major contributor to the Crash of 1929, which led to the Great
Depression, and refinancing mortgages, which was a major contributor to the
Housing Bubble Crash of recent memory, which led to the Great Recession. Before
the crashes, this parallel could only be made by a handful of professionals who study
such esoteric topics. Some of them did sound warnings before the crash, that there

was high risk of this happening, but their voices were drowned out by the millions
of investors, bankers, home owners, etc. convinced that financial investment values
could only go in one direction.
 We live in a world which is much more complex than our forefathers experienced.
To an extent it is a world of our own making, thanks to how we use technology. No
human can fully comprehend all the complexities, so we delegate decision-making to
that technology. Most of us do not understand how the technology does its thing.
But humans developed the technology, the programs that run on it, often for
purposes other than how it is now being used. I like to give my fellow humans the
benefit of the doubt, most are well meaning, but all make mistakes. When human
mistakes are made into technology, or the rules by which society functions as spelled
out by our legislators, the impact can be millions of other people inconvenienced, or
placed at risk.
 We have seen from many recent national and international financial scandals that
there is a disconnect between government regulation and the rapid pace of new
technology and human systems. There is general agreement that certain kinds of
activities ought to have oversight and regulation, but legislators draft laws which
spell out the activities in terms of the current technology and practices. Thanks to
human ingenuity, the power of computers, and technological change, we rapidly find
new things we can do. These new things are outside of the previously drafted laws
which were specific to the old methods and technologies. So the new activities are
conducted without oversight or regulation, until human frailties lead to errors in
judgment and abuses of exactly the reasons why the old activities needed oversight
and regulation. So new laws are drafted to include the latest methods technologies,
which continue to evolve, so that most of the time, the relevant human activity is
outside any laws. This rapid pace of evolution in human affairs also means that the
leaders of business, government, non-profits, also become divorced from a good
understanding of what their enterprises are doing, can do, should do.
Micro Finance (1 Feb 17)

We have been hearing a lot of hype about this.
Micro Credit is supposedly a sub-set of Micro Finance but many people are using the
terminology interchangeably.
What is it?93
Does it serve the needs of the poor.94
Riz Kahn presentations (see footnotes).95
93 Wikipedia FAQ
94 It sounds like what is needed is a charity which will teach personal finance and commerce basics to the poor.

What are its pros and cons?

In theory it is a way to provide basic banking services to people who are denied service by
the mainstream banking industry. Promoters claim it helps the poor escape poverty.
In some nations it is another way for the rich to exploit the poor. 96
In developing countries, even when poor people own land, it is virtually impossible for them
to prove it, so that they can use it as collateral.
For mainstream banks, there is a unit cost for servicing customers, which is similar whether
the customer involvement is small or large amount of money, so they tend to discourage the
smaller customers, with prohibitive minimum fees.
Micro Credit has no transparency, no security, no confidentiality, no regulation. It is a new
industry for crooks.
Regular banks require you to prove you don’t need money before they’ll loan you any,
because government regulation forces them to behave in a civilized manner, most of the
time. Micro-finance, without any regulation, attracts crooks who will loan to anyone,
knowing that if the customer can’t pay, they will beat out of the customer whatever they can
get.
Micro-finance is rooted in a real world, close to the people, where mainstream banks are
close to bankruptcy thanks to gambling with fantasy lands.
Micro-finance in Haiti involves banking by mobile phone. We know from other nations that
any digital device can have any malware and hacking, just like recent years plague with
personal computers. Developed nations have been unable to combat this disease, which is
now the biggest crime statistic. Haitians have zero protection to be added to the mountain
of financial crime victims.
Micro-finance has a romanticized notion that the poorest of the poor are entrepreneurs who
only need a bit of money for their business ideas to take off. Poor are entrepreneurs by
necessity, not choice. They generally lack the skills and financial know-how to make wise
risks towards success. In reality, micro-finance is a way to exploit the poor, via excessive
interest rates and compound interest up to 60-100% a year in Asia, or up to that much a
month in Latin America.
Poor illiterate, ill informed borrowers, do not know when they are being exploited, do not
know how to complain effectively.
95 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGcWWMCR7Kw&feature=autoshare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfPCc4XoOXs&feature=relmfu
Thanks to Peter Burgess for bringing this scandal to my attention.
96 http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/02/17/how-microfinance-can-work/

Women are treated like first class citizens, compared to how many mainstream banks treat
women in some nations, except when the mafia-high interest rates lead to the borrowers
getting killed.
USA Housing Terminology (0 Nov 24)

In the last decade, a series of scandals have come to light which are allegedly at the roots of
the Global Economic Meltdown(s) and Great Recession, and could make the current
situation much worse. Here is some terminology and concepts to help us wrap our minds
around what the heck has been going on. There is a lot I do not yet understand, hesitate to
include until I do find clearer explanations. These concepts are also good to plug into search
engines when looking for more news updates on this crisis. Where I explain something,
including some word(s) in all caps, I believe that word also ought to be defined in this
glossary, which is not to say that I have done so yet.
 AHMSI = American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc
 AG = Attorney General
US Banking Fraud + (0 Nov 24)

 Banking Fraud by example
o When a home-owner’s attorney questioned claims by a BoA representative,
regarding why eligibility for loan modification had been denied, BoA sent the
attorney an electronic copy of the original loan agreement, which had been
altered to show BoA’s current claims, in contradiction to the language in the
original agreement as signed by the home-owner.97
o Countrywide sold a North Carolina woman’s home at a foreclosure sale, even
though she was making the timely payments required under a consent order
entered in bankruptcy court.98
 BoA and BofA = Bank of America

 Boycott is named after Charles Boycott,99 who was the land agent of an absentee
landlord. Some people in Ireland lost their homes, then no one would talk with the
new occupants of the home, or with the greedy landlord or his agents, would not sell
97 Detailed on page 8 of Ms T’s written testimony to the Senate Banking committee. Her testimony is chock
full of instances of systemic fraud against home owners by the mortgage financing industry,
98 See page 15 of Ms T’s written testimony to the Senate Banking committee. Her testimony has hundreds of
examples like this, showing systemic fraud in the banking industry, which goes beyond occasional innocent
errors.
99 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott US 9th circuit had a judicial conference in Aug 2010, later shown on
C-Span, where we learned about Charles Boycott.

them any products, would not work on their property. Boycotts are legal most
everywhere. What is sometimes not legal are secondary boycotts.
 Boycott, Secondary: Suppose we the people do not like what some company is doing
in its hiring practices, outsourcing, foreclosing, environmental behavior, etc. We
follow its vehicles around to identify where it is doing business, note where its logo is
posted, then picket those places to tell the customers there what our objections are
to the outfit it is doing business with. This kind of selective consumer buying
decision is illegal some places.
 CDO = collateralized debt obligation
 CRS = Congressional Research Service
 DEED = Document showing who has ownership title to a home, similar to the
pink slip on an automobile. The owner should have this in an important place, like a
safety deposit box. The government should also have a copy of this as a public
record, where the public does not get to see social security # and other personal
confidential info on the home owner. This was the OLD system, until the Banking
Industry came up with the MERS system to keep track of changes in who owns what
property, without going through the Courthouse Records system. Was it legal for
the MERS system to replace the government system? This is now being hotly
disputed in every state of USA, with judges ruling in both directions. It needs to
work its way up to the US Supreme Court. Also see MORTGAGE.
US Documentation Bungled + (0 Nov 24)

 Documentation Issues by example:100
o If documentation problems prove to be pervasive and, more importantly,
throw into doubt the ownership of not only foreclosed properties but also
pooled mortgages, the consequences could be severe. Clear and
uncontested property rights were the foundation of the USA housing
market, until the banking oligarchy broke the old system and replaced it
with a new broken system.
o If these rights fall into question, that foundation could collapse.
o Borrowers may be unable to determine whether they are sending their
monthly payments to the right people.
o Judges may block any effort to foreclose, even in cases where borrowers
have failed to make regular payments.
o Multiple banks may attempt to foreclose upon the same property.
o Borrowers who have already suffered foreclosure may seek to regain title
to their homes and force any new owners to move out.
100 Sources include US Congressional Oversight;

o Would-be buyers and sellers could find themselves in limbo, unable to

know with any certainty whether they can safely buy or sell a home.
o If such problems were to arise on a large scale, the housing market could
experience even greater disruptions than have already occurred, resulting
in significant harm to major financial institutions.
o If a Wall Street bank were to discover that, due to shoddily executed
paperwork, it still owns millions of defaulted mortgages that it thought it
sold off years ago, it could face billions of dollars in unexpected losses.
 Dual Track System
o One track is the mortgage servicer working its way thru foreclosure process.
o Other track is the loan modification outfit working its way through whether
that can be granted, and if so will it work out.
o Different companies are contacting the home owner, regarding what’s
happening in the two tracks. It is extremely confusing to them.
o In theory, the foreclosure process will run to the very end, then stop right
before asking the judge to sign off on implementing the foreclosure, then sit
there so long as the loan modification is working. As soon as the home
owner misses one payment, the foreclosure runs to a conclusion.
o In reality, this system is broken, thanks to crooks in the system, and poor
accounting communication practices. Many people are getting foreclosed
even though they never missed a payment.
 Everyone Greed … During the growth of the Housing Boom, many people
were investing in housing, because they believed the values could only go in one
direction, up. Every time houses bought and sold for more money, or were
refinanced with greater value, people were gambling that they would be able to
sell again at higher pricing. This process would continue, so long as there were
plenty greedy fools willing to gamble. Ultimately the system ran out of gambling
fools, and the boom turned into a crash. This is classic boom and bust economic
theory. The boom went from approx 1994 to 2005, where the securities market in
mortgage loans peaked in 2007. That’s 11-13 years. The collapse would take 1/3
that time, or around 4 years, bottoming out in 2011, except for interruptions by
government efforts, and impact of all the crooks in the system. After the collapse,
there will be approx 80-90 years until the next housing boom. It takes that long
for people to forget the stupid stuff done in the Great Depression, then start doing
that stupid stuff again.
US F+ (0 Nov 24)
 FDIC = Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
 FFETF = Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force
 FHFA = Federal Housing Finance Agency
 FinCEN = Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

 ForeclosureGate101
 Foreclosure, Strategic:: (by example)

o You are a home owner UNDER WATER, able to pay the mortgage, cannot
get loan modification.
o You move out of the house to a cheaper rental property.
o You send the bank the keys to the house in snail mail ( jingle mail).
o Eventually the bank sells the property at a loss.
o If you are lucky, the property was purchased by a friend, who rents to you
the home you have loved, for much less than what you were paying.
o You continue to live in the home you have loved, you may buy it from the
friend if you can afford the cash purchase – no more mortgages because the
financial industry has demonstrated its untrustworthiness.
o The property is no longer under water. Any payments are reasonable.
US Fraud + (0 Nov 24)

 Fraud Solutions Proposed:
o Make DUAL TRACK illegal. As soon as mortgage refinance process
successfully grants home owner a replacement loan, stop the foreclosure
process completely.
o Modernization of Lending Industry – regulators force financial industry to
clean up their record-keeping
o Regulate the Mortgage Servicers, just like every other financial institution has
traditionally been regulated. See SERVICERS, MORTGAGE.
o Take Servicers out of the Mortgage industry. Who would then do that job?
There have been several proposed, noting that there is no such thing as an
uncontested third party, since the US government has its fingers in this
mixture of investors, loan offerings, etc.
 New government agency perform the job.
 New kind of Bankruptsy Court to manage this.
o Treasury Dept be told by Congress that “Protect the Banks” at all costs, is
not its only mission.
 Fraudulent Document Production and claims:
101Mother Jones writes on this “The Buck stops nowhere.” Congress holds hearings, we hear the same
horrible stories, and nothing happens, other than the situation getting worse.

o When a financial institution claims a document is lost, it might not in fact be

lost, it is just too much trouble for them to go look for it in a warehouse of
millions of other documents, where they can get misfiled.
o Some institutions do not trust their lawyers to return the original documents,
especially if they are switching attorneys, and there might be some disputes
when they do so.
o Assuming the claim of lost document is accepted, there is a need to create
replacement documents. There is an industry which services the mortgage
servicers, which provides new documents, with such tools as counterfeit
notary seals. As with everything else, we do not know the extent of this
fraudulent activity.
 FTC = Federal Trade Commission
 HAFA = Treasury’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives
 HAMP = Home Affordable Modification Program
 HERA = Housing and Economic Recovery Act

 HUD = Housing and Urban Development
 IFLA = The Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance
US Justice + (0 Nov 24)

 Justice Gap, Access to Justice, see “LAWYER, right to have one.”
 Lawyer, right to have one, only exists in Criminal Cases in USA.102 We have
all heard that a person, who represents self in a court case, has a fool for a lawyer. Well,
o 70—80 % of people in US civil cases have no lawyer. Sometimes they can
afford one but cannot find one to represent them. In 35% of these 70-80%
cases, the person without a lawyer is facing a lawyer on the other side. It used to
be that 95% of US home owners could not get a lawyer to protect their interests
when facing foreclosure, but this has recently dropped to 80% now that there has
been discovery of how exposed the financial industry is to risk of being shown to
have engaged in fraud.
o The system of justice in America is a house on fire.
 4/5 of poor people have serious unmet legal needs
 3/5 of middle class people have serious unmet legal needs.
o Civil cases can include:
102 Right to Counsel exists in ALL types of cases in Europe.

 Bankrupsy
 Child Custody
 Civil Rights
 Divorce
 Domestic Dispute
 Employment, wrongful job loss
 Eviction
 Foreclosure
 Intellectual Property Piracy
 Medical Malpractice alleged
 Student Loans
o Pro SE is the legal terminology for a self-represented litigant, or a person in a
civil case who does not have a lawyer.
 MBS = mortgage-backed security
US MERS + (0 Nov 24)

 MERS = Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. There are several
different mortgage servicers performing a similar role, where MERS is the
largest. This is a new type of financial institution invented outside the sphere of
enterprises subject to government oversight or regulation, so they are able to
successfully block efforts by investigators to get answers about alleged
accounting irregularities.
 MORTGAGE = Document clearly identifying what financial institution has a lien
on real estate property financed by a loan. The government should have a copy of
this as a public record, where the public does not get to see social security # and
other personal confidential info on the home owner. This was the OLD system,
until the Banking Industry came up with the MERS system to keep track of changes
in who owns what property, and who has the mortgage (first lien), 2 nd and 3rd liens,
without going through the Courthouse Records system. Was it legal for the MERS
system to replace the government system? This is now being hotly disputed in every
state of USA, with judges ruling in both directions. It needs to work its way up to
the US Supreme Court. Also see DEED and PROMISARY NOTE.
 NACA = Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America

 Ponzi Scheme = The notion that the same mortgages may be sold to more than one
group of investors. This conspiracy theory used to explain the lack of accounting trails of
103
who owns which securities, or has a legal right to which real estate properties.
 PROMISARY NOTE. This is created at same time as the MORTGAGE. The

Mortgage is the declaration what financial institution is providing the LOAN, where the
PROMISARY NOTE is the home owner’s promise to pay the loan, with whatever interest
rate etc. info spelled out. Unlike the DEED and MORTGAGE, this was never a public
record. The home owner was free at the beginning to shop around to which financial
institution offered best deal for HOME LOAN, but once the mortgage and promise to
repay are signed, the financial institutions are free to buy and sell SECURITIES
containing MORTGAGES with any other institutions. The Home Owner may not have
freedom to change whatever institution is holding the note, or refinance or adjust the
deal.
 PSA = Pooling and Servicing Agreement
US Put-Back + (0 Nov 24)

 Put-Back: When and if the legal process is able to prove mortgage loan
documentation fraud by a specific institution, that organization is required to repurchase
the loan for the outstanding principal balance plus any accrued interest. If that
bank is now out of business, the situation gets more complicated, who has to
perform the repurchasing.
 ROBO-SIGNING is when people are employed for the purpose of signing legal
documents which claim those people can attest to the truth of all claims in the
104
documents, when in fact they have done no such thing.
 Servicer, Mortgage105 =In theory, this is an organization which collects

mortgage payments from home owners, and delivers the money to the bank which
owns the mortgage, taking only small fees for its profits. In reality, it is an industry
lacking in government regulation or oversight, which is free to sabotage mortgages,
because it makes much more money by forcing homes into foreclosure.
 TARP = Department of the Treasury (Treasury) Troubled Asset Relief Program
103 See first comment here: http://www.totalmortgage.com/blog/mortgage-rates/senate-foreclosure-hearing-

robo-signing-an-affront-to-state-courts/8089
104 Total Mortgage Blog wrote about a Senate Banking hearing, quoting Iowa AG Tom Miller dismissing
outright the idea (frequently touted by banks) that robo-signing is a “technical issue”, saying that it is “an
affront to state courts”. Thia Blog went a bit further and said that it is an affront to anyone with a modicum
of respect for the concept of the rule of law. Miller is one of the people who is leading up the joint attorneys
general investigation into foreclosure fraud.
105 Wikipedia on Mortgage Servicers;

 Title Insurance: We can purchase insurance on many risks, damage to our

property from theft, flood; liability in case of auto accident. With Title Insurance, if
there is a disputed claim regarding the right of some outfit to foreclose our property,
the insurance company is supposed to defend the home owner rights, provided the
home owner does in fact have that kind of insurance.
US Toxic + (0 Nov 24)

 Toxic securitized mortgage loans, by example.106
o Investors in mortgage-backed securities typically demanded certain
assurances about the quality of the loans they purchased: for instance, that
the borrowers had certain minimum credit ratings and income, or that their
homes had appraised for at least a minimum value.
o Allegations have surfaced that banks may have misrepresented the quality
of many loans sold for securitization. Banks, found to have provided
misrepresentations, could be required to repurchase any affected
mortgages.
o Because millions of these mortgages are in default or foreclosure, the
result could be extensive capital losses if such repurchase risk is not
adequately reserved.
 Under Water means the value of the property is below the value of the
mortgage loan still to be paid back. In 2010, the total under-water deficit of all
US mortgages is greater than the total assets of 100% of USA banks. The bankers
are hoping the economy will recover, and drive back up the value of the homes,
and that they can hold on to the under water value until it is no longer under
water, or sell the inflated toxic asset mortgage values to other fools willing to pay
the inflated prices.
USA Toxic Housing Assets (0 Oct 10)

A situation has arisen in the American Housing market which has a lot in common with the
Haitian Housing market. One of the first news media outlets to tell me about this was Jon
Stewart who uses political humor107 to show how ridiculous some messes are, much like
RISKs digest for incredibly stupid technical decisions by people who ought to know better.
Then I found that the story has been out and about for much longer than I was aware of it,
such as on South Florida Oppenheim blog.
This latest USA Housing Market Corruption is very similar to the Haiti Ownership mess, in
that the people who live in the homes are screwed, while the judicial system ensures that the
crooks make out like bandits. A mess has been created which could take many years or
106 Sources include US Congressional Oversight;

107 See Jon Stewart Video via Huffington Post.

decades to clean up. If the USA is incapable of rapidly resolving this, what does that say
about how long it will take to clean up the Haiti mess?
While I believe this latest Housing Scandal in USA has a LOT in common with the Haiti
Corrupt system ... government regulators asleep while corruption-friendly systems run amok,
then no-one held accountable after the scandal breaks, I recognize there are different
audiences seeking mental understanding of the astronomical messes in the two different
nations, so ultimately I will split off the USA info into a separate research notes document.
As usual, lots of people are speculating on what’s going on, and the news media quoting
them. I want to figure out what facts are provable. I also wrote about this in my Facebook
Notes Oct 10, 2010. I am finding out that some foreclosures have multiple errors.
The problem in the Haitian Housing market is that the hand-written documents
showing who owns what, are often contradictory, and difficult to figure out which is valid
and which fraudulent. The Haitian government had totally failed to solve this problem prior
to the Jan 2010 earthquake whose recovery is now blocked by this challenge. The system is
corruption-friendly.
The problem in the American Housing market is that the computerized and/or
voluminous documents showing who owns what, who has what mortgage, are often
fraudulent, and difficult to figure out which are legitimate. The US court system has been
ignoring the problem, until it has reached catastrophic proportions. This is a sub-set of the
Toxic Asset problem apparently started by the Sub-Prime Mortgage melt-down.
If you have title insurance, doesn’t that protect you in case there is later found to be
something wrong with the paperwork declaring what you really have clear title to?
Apparently not, there may also be fraud in that industry. 108
According to Consumer Affairs, companies with the most consumer complaints are:
 Chase Mortgage
 Chase Credit Cards
 Bank of America
 University of Phoenix 109
 Lending Tree
 Quicken Loans
 eHarmony.com
108Title Insurances Finally Get Attention Amidst Foreclosure Freezing, Oct 10 2010 Re Journal.
109Many big name universities were found by GAO to be engaging in fraudulent sales of education, designed to
saddle people with student loans they cannot pay, so the taxpayers end up underwriting the fraud.

 Samsung TV
 JK Harris
 Amerisave Mortgage
Forgery is Ok when Bank does it? (0 Oct 12)

Congress has passed a bill, which looks like it will be the first legislation President Obama
will veto.110 The bill would have required courts to accept out-of-state notarizations.
Bank Malpractice means some Foreclosures are Fraudulent, and no one really knows what
the proportion is between valid and crooked, so many people are calling for a moratorium
on foreclosures until the banking industry cleans up its act. President Obama will not
support this, an unpopular but perhaps wise move, since no one really expects the banking
industry will ever clean up its act.
When Banks pass the buck to nitch businesses, and pick and choose them based on cheapest
to do the job, should they really be surprised to find that some have engaged in fraudulent
practices?
Risk of Error (0 Nov 14)

We in the computer industry have long known that any record keeping system can have
errors, and when those records are entered into computers, not only are the errors often
copied, they can be multiplied. At the same time, there is a popular idiotic myth
among many computer users who say “If this data is in the computer, it must be correct.”
Those computer users can include employees at many institutions, private and public
sectors. When people act on computerized data, without doing any spot checking of the
veracity of that data, we can have a cascade effect of bad data feeding bad decisions.
Some recent major disasters have resulted from that kind of thinking. For example before
the gulf oil spill, the engineers were following a check list. One step was to do a negative
pressure test. The test was a total failure, but instead of figuring out how come, the
engineers went on to the next step on their check list. This was a case of relying on a flawed
set of records (do this test with nothing in the instructions what to do if it failed), instead of
relying on human intelligence.
In addition to innocent human errors in any data, we can also have results of actions of
criminal fraud, some of it perpetrated by employees of otherwise legitimate institutions.
110 New York Times Oct 7. New York Times Oct 8.

New Orleans Snafu (0 Dec 05)

Because of a "failure in the hard drive," nobody in New Orleans has
been able to close a real estate transaction for over a month. The
contractor responsible for making backups apparently didn't.
http://blog.nola.com/crime_impact/print.html?entry=/2010/11/computer_gl
itch_stalls_orleans.html
Mortgage Investors (1 Jan 25)
Bank of America Inc.’s Countrywide Financial unit, acquired by the bank in 2008, was
accused of “massive fraud” in a lawsuit by investors who claim they were misled about
mortgage-backed securities.111
TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co., New York Life Insurance Co. and Dexia Holdings Inc. are
among a dozen institutional investors who filed the complaint yesterday in New York state
Supreme Court.
The investors claim they bought hundreds of millions of dollars of Countrywide mortgage-
backed securities from 2005 to 2007 because they wanted conservative, low-risk investments.
They said they relied on term sheets, prospectuses and other materials provided by the firm
that were recklessly or knowingly false.
The suit follows other fraud actions against Countrywide related to alleged misstatements to
investors regarding the company’s mortgage-loan underwriting standards.
Home Investors (0 Dec 08)

Thanks to Stephen Nuchia for this insight: ‘As with the dot-gone crash, the take-home
for the "homegamer" investor is to look at the back issues of WSJ and Fortune and
see which talking heads were telling the truth in the run-up to this debacle and
which were cheerleading for the criminals. Then listen to the truth-tellers in the
future.’
Janet Tavakoli Explains How Banks Converted US Housing Into "Fraud As A
Business Model" | zero hedge
www.zerohedge.com
Janet Tavakoli shares a presentation she prepared for the Federal Housing Finance Agency
Supervision Summit earlier today, in which she attempts to explain to politicians how banks
made fraud into a "business model" and how the damage can be repaired.
Foreclosure FAQ (0 Oct 10)

FAQ about this mess from Knoxville News Biz.112
111http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-24/countrywide-sued-by-investors-in-mortgage-backed-
securities.html

Q. Is this really reasonable human error by big institutions, trying to save money on their
paperwork?
A. There's no reason to be skirting the law and sending in fake documents to courts if you
have any interest in taking good faith measures to avoid a foreclosure and consider loan
modifications like you're supposed to.113
Q. Aren’t errors inevitable when there’s high volume transactions processed by any
organization?114
A. You have to infer some element of intent in not providing adequate staff to keep track of
paperwork. Where you have the kind of very consistent pattern of losing paperwork and
delaying making loan modifications permanent basically forever, there is a pattern there that
I think shows intent not to comply with laws.115
Q. How is the foreclosure process supposed to go, when there’s nothing wrong?
A. In judicial foreclosure states, there are requirements that certain legal papers be in
order, like the party foreclosing has to possess an original note for the loan, and the
mortgage has to be assigned to the party doing the foreclosure, and there ought to be a
law firm that is dealing with actual, physical papers that they get.
23 states are this way. Indiana is one of them.116
In a proper functioning legal system, you'd have local law firm sent all the relevant loan
documents, deals directly with someone who has authority to modify the loan, and makes
critical decisions about loss mitigation issues. That was standard practice 20 years ago in
mortgage foreclosures across country.117
In non-judicial states, law firms conducting private sales are also supposed to be getting all
of the proper loan documents themselves in their office. They would also be in contact with
the people who own the note and mortgage and could make decisions about modifications.
But what you see now is the "foreclosure mill" law firms processing paperwork at a local
level are often two or three levels down from even the major servicer. So say you have a
major servicer like Wells Fargo, and Wells Fargo has contracts with different trusts that own
mortgages. What Wells Fargo and other servicers typically do is when loans in their servicing
portfolio fall into default, the information about those loans is transferred to other entities,
112 Additions from other sources.

113 Knox News Q+A.
114 In Al Mac experience, this depends on the corporate system for managing data processing, having good
error detection and resolution practices, good quality training for the people handling the data, not outsourcing
it to people in another nation who not understand our culture or laws.
115 Knox News Q+A.
116 Evansville Courier and Press editorial Oct 15, on the Foreclosure mess.
117 Knox News Q+A.

like this Lender Processing Services, LPS, and what LPS does is manage data platforms. LPS
has the authority to hire attorneys and firms throughout the country to foreclose on those
Wells Fargo mortgages.118
Q. It seems like homeowner protection depends on where you are geographically.
A. Yes. There are certain states where foreclosures are carried on completely without any
judicial supervision, and they can be carried out in two months, and other states where a
foreclosure can take a year and half.119
Q. What recourse do you have if you are in a state without judicial supervision?
A. Hire a lawyer.120 Homeowners are fortunate enough to get an attorney to represent them.
You have to file a lawsuit in court to stop a foreclosure. It's a type of legal proceeding
that's complicated -- it requires a motion for temporary restraining order or injunction,
and it has to be prepared in a short time frame. It's expensive. There are very few
challenges to foreclosures. In some states, there are very few attorneys that know how to
do that.121
Several non-judicial states have recently enacted statutes that said that before a servicer
can complete a non-judicial foreclosure sale, they have to complete a certification saying
they attempted to contact the homeowner and reviewed loss mitigation options. 122
At housing sale closing, two documents are created. 123
 One is the promissory note explaining the terms of the loan.

 The second is the mortgage showing there's a lien on the property and who holds
it.
In the past, when a mortgage was sold, the new owner filed mortgage documents with
county offices showing it now held the lien and paid recording fees. This system’s info
was open to inspection by anyone in the county who had a legal interest in who owns
what property, who holds the mortgage. This old system has now been broken by the
mortgage banking industry, and replaced with a new broken system.
As the volume of refinanced mortgages grew in the late 1990s, the mortgage industry
sought to reduce its fee expenses and speed up the process of re-assigning mortgage liens
as mortgages were being rapidly bought and sold.
118 Knox News Q+A.

119 Knox News Q+A.
120 Arrange with a confederate to file the kind of nonsense papers the banks have been filing, to foreclose the
bank buildings. Evict them, and legally seize the money in the vault. You could have a problem with the bank
regulators who operate under a different system of justice.
121 Knox News Q+A.
122 But how is this enforced?
123 Fight over MERS’s legal right to foreclose makes mess worse, Oct 11 2010 USA Today.

By having MERS hold mortgage liens for the owners, MERS eliminated the need for
servicers to file paper documents reporting a lien holder change each time a mortgage
was sold. MERS gives loans identification numbers, which are used to track changes in
loans' servicers and owners. 124
Critics, like North Carolina bankruptcy lawyer O. Max Gardner, say the MERS database
isn't always up to date, leading to uncertainty about the lien holder's identity. "Sometimes
MERS members enter the information, and sometimes they don't."
MERS says it has the legal right to foreclose when the owner of the loan chooses to make
MERS the holder of the promissory note and gives it the right to enforce the mortgage if
it goes into default. But lawyers representing homeowners disagree, saying MERS
doesn't have the legal right to foreclose because it doesn't actually own the mortgage
loan. 125
Some states judges have ruled in favor of MERS claims, some have ruled against. The
same kinds of charges that have been leveled against the banks and mortgage companies,
have also been leveled against MERS. There are a series of class action suits and
organized crime charges against MERS.
Economic Impact of Scandal (0 Oct 16)

Housing analysts were counting on a speedy resolution of the foreclosure crisis to getting the
real estate market back on its feet. A slower process means the housing recession could drag
on longer than predicted.126
Even lenders with no known problems are expected to approach defaulting homeowners
more cautiously and look more aggressively for resolutions short of outright eviction. 127
"This is the tip of an ugly iceberg," said Oppenheim. "The impact of this news will have far-
reaching effects to homeowners, home buyers, banks and title insurers. It will affect capital
flows in the real estate market for years and rather than speed up the foreclosure process,
this will gum it up and slow it down for years.” 128
The issue has broad consequences, not just for the people who lost homes, but for the
millions of buyers of foreclosed homes, some of whom might not have clear title to their
bargain property.
One of the major title insurance companies, Old Republic National Title, has sent a
bulletin to agents saying that “until further notice” it would not insure title to properties
126 Foreclosure Errors by Mortgage Companies May Help Troubled Homeowners, Sep 29 2010 Consumer
Affairs.
127 Foreclosures Slow as Document Flaws Emerge, Sep 30 2010 New York Times.
128 Foreclosure Errors by Mortgage Companies May Help Troubled Homeowners, Sep 29 2010 Consumer
Affairs.

foreclosed upon by GMAC Mortgage, the country’s fourth-largest home lender and one of
the two big lenders at the center of the current controversy.129
However, there is also speculation that this scandal will force banks to start treating their
customers with more dignity, and take uncertainty back out of the credit market, leading to
more consumers likely to get into home ownership again.
In California, where judges don't handle foreclosures, the housing market appears to have
hit bottom a year ago and has been bouncing back. In Florida, where foreclosures go
through the court system, prices keep falling, and foreclosure inventory continues to rise.130
White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday questioned the need for a moratorium,
saying that valid foreclosures with accurate documents should go ahead. 131 "Our hope is
this moves rapidly and that this gets unwound very, very quickly,'' he said on CBS's
"Face the Nation"132
But Richard Cordray, Ohio's attorney general, said Sunday that as many as 40 state
attorneys general across the country intend to open an investigation of lenders and
servicers to figure out the scope of the problems with foreclosure documents.133
Now all 50 states are involved in this.134
MSNBC Update (0 Nov 17)
The Last Word on MSNBC Nov 17 had an update on toxic foreclosures, which they say
are placing the USA at risk of another economic melt down.
The fundamental problems they saw are:
 Fraudulent Mortgages
 Banks demonize innocent home owners
 Financial System Corrupted to its Core
 Mortgage Servicer Fraud
HAMP is a government program where people can get modifications on their mortgage
payment rates. People, who have been paying everything on time, contact their financial
130 Foreclosure Delay Poses Risk, Oct 10 2010 Wall Street Journal.
131 This guy is apparently assuming that many thousands of documents signed without reading by bank
executives were otherwise valid, various injustices found out by investigators were aberrations, and violating the
law is not really that important unless it is a little guy doing it.
Attorneys General in 40 States Said to Join on Foreclosures, Oct 09 2010 Bloomberg News.

institutions and ask for this. The mortgage servicer tells them that they are not eligible
for HAMP because they have been paying on time, that what they need to do is stop
paying so as to get qualified for HAMP. If they do so, what happens instead is they get
Foreclosed.
Why are the servicers doing this?
They only break even on servicing a housing loan which is being paid on time, but they
make huge fees associated with a foreclosure.
How big is this problem?
The lawyers defending the home owners say that they have not yet had to turn away a
case because the banks had done everything correctly. Every home owner, who has gone
to the lawyers for help, has been in the right, with the banking industry in the wrong.
Washington DC will investigate (0 Oct 10)

California Lawmakers have asked federal regulators to investigate the entire industry, 135 and
for the GAO to review whether regulators need more authority in this area. Sen. Robert
Menendez, D.-N.J., who leads a Senate subcommittee that oversees housing issues, sent
letters to more than 100 companies in the mortgage lending industry. "I want to know how
deep this problem goes and what safeguards are now in place to prevent unjustified rubber-
stamp foreclosures from happening in the future," Menendez said.136
Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, urged all five large mortgage lenders to suspend
foreclosures in Nevada until they have set up systems to make sure homeowners aren't
"improperly directed into foreclosure proceedings".137
Nevada, where home repossessions are among the highest, is not among those 23 states
where foreclosures must be approved by a judge, meaning that the process is relatively
swift.
US Attorney General Eric Holder is joining several state attorneys general in an escalating
legal inquiry over reports of legally dubious foreclosure proceedings initiated by major
lenders.138 Attorneys General in North Carolina, Texas and Connecticut have
called for wholesale moratoriums on foreclosures in their states, while California and
Massachusetts have asked particular lenders to suspend foreclosure activity.
135 California Lawmakers want Foreclosure Investigation, Oct 05 2010 Associated Press.
136 Senator demands lenders reveal foreclosure errors, Oct 05 2010 Associated Press.
137 Bank of America stops selling repossessed homes, Oct 08 2010 BBC News.
138 Justice Dept digs into Foreclosure Foibles, Oct 06 2010 New York Observer.

Nov 16 Congress Oversight Report (0 Nov 18)

The Congressional Oversight Panel's November oversight report (127 pages), "Examining
the Consequences of Mortgage Irregularities for Financial Stability and Foreclosure
Mitigation," reviews allegations that companies servicing $6.4 trillion in American mortgages
may in some cases have bypassed legally required steps to foreclose on a home. 139
The best-case scenario embraced by the financial industry, is that a handful of
employees failed to follow procedures in signing foreclosure-related affidavits, but the facts
underlying the affidavits are demonstrably accurate. Foreclosures could proceed as soon as
the invalid affidavits are replaced with properly executed paperwork.
The worst-case scenario articulated by academics and homeowner advocates, the
"robo-signing" of affidavits served to cover up the fact that loan servicers cannot
demonstrate the facts required to conduct a lawful foreclosure. The risk stems from the
possibility that the rapid growth of mortgage securitization in recent years may have
outpaced the ability of the legal and financial system to track mortgage loan ownership. In
essence, banks may be unable to prove that they own the mortgage loans they claim to own.
Fire Dog Lake on CRS report (0 Nov 20)

CRS = Congressional Research Service
The article clarifies the astronomical mess140 we now are in, thanks to toxic mortgage
banking practices. Here is the diagram blown up so that it is readable.141 Foreclosures are
rising at the fastest rate in history, now over three times the rate at the peak of the Great
Depression. The CRS report says the banks would be liable for “billions,” but worst-case
scenarios by independent experts put that number much higher.
This report reiterates that the servicers believe they have performed lawfully and not
wrongfully foreclosed on anyone, but that the robo-signing problems could be masking
more substantive issues around the true ownership of the mortgage and the property. The
class actions, which could be expanded nationally, seek damages for homeowners whose
properties were illegally foreclosed upon by banks using fraudulent documents. A bigger
threat to the banking oligarchy are lawsuits which contend the banks’ foreclosure machinery
amounted to a racketeering enterprise.
139 127 page report http://cop.senate.gov/documents/cop-111610-report.pdf summarized here

http://cop.senate.gov/reports/library/report-111610-cop.cfm
140 http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/19/crs-report-details-dangers-of-foreclosure-fraud/
141http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Edstrom_MortgageSecuritization_POSTER_.jpg and the big picture source
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/11/reverse-engineered-securitization-flow-chart/ (Click on it a couple times to alter scale. Thanks to Kathy Gilbeaux for
locating these links for me.

The land recording system that was set up in the USA in the colonial age has only recently
been disrupted by the advent of MERS, the electronic registry which short-circuited that
process and substituted themselves as the mortgagee on official documents, with the
constant trading of mortgages happening on their database. “The use of MERS raises a
number of legal questions,” the report says, “such as whether MERS has the legal standing
to initiate foreclosures in its own name and to what extent recording MERS as mortgagee or
assignee provides sufficient notice to subsequent purchasers under state recording statutes,
which are currently being litigated in many jurisdictions.” 142
There are massive conflicts of interest, in which the federal government is among the actors.
Nov 16 Senate Hearing (0 Nov 17)

The Senate Banking Committee143 held a hearing Nov. 16 to investigate mortgage
servicing and foreclosure practices, according to its website.144 I watched most of this on C-
Span145 and took copious notes. When time etc. permits, I hope to access the written
statements of the panelists, and other references, and link some of them here. The hearing
was very spirited, with the Senators asking insightful questions of multiple panelists, then
asking the panelists to comment on various accusations leveled at each other.
Various other observers posted their comments on this hearing.
 Fire Dog Lake said this hearing went very badly for the Banking Industry, 146 but I
feel that only happened because they failed to do a good job of addressing the
serious grievances against them, basically saying “errors happen”, are unavoidable,
and when they brought to our attention, we do our best to rectify them. The
mortgage-backed securities market is so big – $7.6 trillion dollars – that you would
only need 8% of them to be put back to wipe out the capital of every major bank.
And as soon as one – just one – of these put-back law suits is successful, you will see
an avalanche of filings.
My notes follow, rewritten to hopefully improve clarity.
Primary Actors (0 Nov 17)

Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D) talked about the MANY problems, the importance of
understanding the big picture, then working towards solutions.
Minority Leader of the Committee, Senator Shelby (R) talked about the importance of
getting a handle on the volume of the different problems, the role of various actors who had
142 http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/19/crs-report-details-dangers-of-foreclosure-fraud/
143 Banking.Senate.Gov
144 Attorneys General in 40 States Said to Join on Foreclosures, Oct 09 2010 Bloomberg News.
145 C-Span.org
146http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/17/recapping-yesterdays-senate-banking-hearing-on-foreclosure-
fraud/

a responsibility to prevent this from happening, and the need to hold additional hearings
because of problems for which none of the witnesses today are involved in many areas in
need of investigation.
After these two, because of other meetings going on, the plan was to have most of the
Republican Senators ask their questions, then have most of the Democratic Senators ask
their questions. In the middle of this there was a quorum, so they took a vote, and got 16-
yes 7-no.
Multiple Senators shared laundry lists of the kinds of problems happening to their
constituents in large numbers of incidents, which defied reason.
The panelists (in order of appearance) were:
 Tom Miller, Attorney General of State of Iowa, leader of the 50 state gang of AGs
seeking redress, and changes to prevent this from ever happening again. (In my
notes I refer to him as AG Tom”.) It is a huge collection of frustrating complexities,
he says.
o Radio Iowa report on AG Tom’s testimony.147
 Barbara DeSoer with Bank of America Home Loans (in my notes I refer to her as
“Ms BoA”). She is of the philosophy that errors and mistakes are unavoidable, but
when found, they try to seek redress, improve their practices, train their people. Her
statistics are mind-boggling. Apparent conflict in my notes of Ms BoA testimony:
We are all actors in one box; We cannot solve this because of the other actors
outside our box.
o Here is Ms BoA’s written testimony to the Senate hearing.
o Pro Publica later published a rebuttal to Ms BoA claims about Wall Street
investors blocking resolution.
 Mr. Arnold with Mortgage Electronic Services (in my notes I refer to him as “Mr
MERS”). He thinks his system is superior to the nation’s property rights laws, and
blames all errors on banking clerical.
 Professor Levitt from Georgetown Law (in my notes I refer to him as “Prof”)
specializing in bankrupsy and mortgage law. He talked about dire consequences to
our economy from MERS and the banks hijacking the nation’s property rights laws,
then screwing them up with astronomical conflicts of interest, where figuring out the
mess is still a big unknown due to legal issues with evidentiary questions.
147 http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/11/17/attorney-general-testifies-before-senate-on-foreclosures/

 Mr Loman with Chase Home Lending (he was like a clone of Ms BoA, in my notes I
refer to him as “Mr Chase”). His testimony echoed Ms BoA, except for a YOU LIE
protestor who needed 3 police persons to evict.
 Ms Diane Thomson of the National Consumer Law Center (in my notes I refer to
her as “Ms T”). She had testified about related problems in July. She said NONE of
those problems had been fixed. The only change was for the situation to get worse.
There are cascading costs throughout our society which pose both a moral hazard
and threaten our global economic stability. Basically she explained the root of the
problems was that the mortgage companies believe the rules and laws which apply to
everyone else, do not apply to them. She cited egregious examples of screw-ups with
BoA and Chase, which their mouth pieces explained as errors are unavoidable.
Sorry.
o Here is Ms T’s written testimony to the Senate hearing.148
Some of the problems mentioned: (0 Nov 17)

 Serious allegations of wrong doing by a variety of institutions
 Predatory practices
 Systemic risks created by banking practices
 Robo-signing documents which often have fraudulent contents
 Paperwork lost repetitively by banking institutions
 Illegal fee structures
 Payments made by home owners are not applied to where the contract says they
should be applied, then the home owners are blamed and foreclosed because of this
 Misrepresentation
 Conflicts of Interest
 People, with no mortgage at all, who still get foreclosed and lose their homes
 People with mortgages, who make all their payments on time, who still get
foreclosed
 Banking institution personnel who tell home owners to do things, which cause the
home owners to be in default, and lose their homes
 Why are the regulators not catching this?
 Why is the new financial responsibility institution doing nothing about this?
148http://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/foreclosure_mortgage/mortgage_servicing/testimony-senate-banking.pdf

Property Law replaced by Banker Oligarchy (0 Nov 17)

Senator Shelby described how mortgages used to operate, asked what has changed, and does
this constitute a violation of the property laws of US states?
Several panelists replied with multiple spins on this.
Much has changed. Volume has jammed up courthouse recorders offices, so they are now
being circumvented, with MERS hijacking the state property public record chain of
ownership, and blaming banks for all mistakes in the system.
But does the courthouse get a copy of MERS info? No, the courthouses are obsolete relics
to be ignored in this new system invented by the banking industry.
But does the law of the land permit the banking industry to do this?
Ms T explained that this is a hotly debated topic in all states, with different judges ruling
different ways. She says that MERS has complicated the situation, but there are much more
serious problems than MERS.
Perception in Eye of Beholder (0 Nov 17)

Senator Mike Johanns ® talked about legitimate ways to have a foreclosure, where someone
fails to make proper payments on their mortgage, then asked for examples of illegitimate
ways.
Ms T cited cases where home owners did pay properly, but still lost their homes, thanks to
bank errors and improper fees. She knows of many such cases of this widespread problem,
but does not have a good sense of overall volume. She cited some statistics from cases with
her company, but my phone chose then to ring, so I missed some detail.
86% of home-owners nationwide are Ok
14% are in some kind of trouble
2% is what it would be in normal times
Senator Robert Bennett (R-Utah) then gave Ms BoA and Mr Chase an opportunity to reply
to Ms T picture of their industry’s reckless behavior. Those were errors. Errors happen.
When brought to our attention, we investigate and make good. We doing what we can to
help the 14%.
Senator to Ms T
Human beings do make honest mistakes, any institution.
For example, IRS agents tell taxpayers it is Ok to do things, then they end up in Tax Court
where it is not a valid defense to say they did exactly what the IRS agent told them it was Ok
to do.

The Prof supported Ms T, citing testimony where Countrywide was doing exactly what Ms T
was accusing the banking industry of doing, and he went on to explain the conflict of
interest where it is in the best interests of the banks, investors, community housing values,
and so forth, to help consumers keep their homes, when they can afford to make the
contractual payments. The problem is that the mortgage service providers, like MERS, make
more money by triggering foreclosures, than helping people keep their homes.
Senator Dodd also cited evidence in support of Ms T.
Conflicts and Confusion (0 Nov 17)

Senator Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) asked what laws need to be changed to fix these
problems.
The Prof said the laws are good, compliance is lousy. There are systems which work fine,
but are not being used. His understanding of some issues are second hand and may be
flawed. Under the old system, there was a paperwork trail of who owned what, and any
constraints on what could be done with the property, or contracts downstream. Under the
news system, the contracts can be sold from bank to bank to bank with the chain of
ownership and limitations broken. As volumes grew, it became convenient to disregard the
laws of the land.
AG Tom said there was no way for regulators to discover this, because they each looking at
the paperwork associated with a particular institution. How it was discovered was home
owners able to fight back, where litigation deposed banking employees, where the fraudulent
paperwork was uncovered. He agrees wholeheartedly with Sen Dodd that comprehensive
review is needed.
Ms BoA and Mr Chase said that the allegations about multiple liens don’t apply to them.
Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) had a litany of stories from his constituents. He is very
disturbed about the volume and patterns. There was BoA fraud that torpedoed one person’s
home ownership, while another got foreclosed when there were multiple reasons it should
never have happened.
Ms BoA says employees sometimes screw up, some things are confusing, but their hands are
tied by the other actors.
Sen Tester says that’s why we are here, we need to understand why this is happening, why it
cannot be fixed. He is very concerned about the scope and scale of the problem.
AG Tom agreed. We need to get at how often it happens, and how it can be stopped.
There is a dual process where mortgage refinancing does not stop the foreclosure process, so
consumers are being contacted by two different groups of actors, saying very different
things, which is very confusing. The fact that a loan modification is in effect, and being paid
properly, means that the foreclosure process is supposed to run to conclusion, then stop
before actual final implementation, unless the modification payments are not done properly.

Senator Jeff Merkey (D-Oregon) described his understanding of the dual process, then asked
if he had stated it correctly.
Mr Chase said yes, while others said mistakes often occur, apparently on purpose, so the
foreclosure does not in fact stop. The Senator has stacks of complaints from constituents
where this has happened.
The banker reps claimed the old process took too long, complicated by documents
problems, which apparently have not been solved by the new process.
I missed who said what, when the lawmakers were asking how come the dual process could
not be stopped, when there is a satisfactory loan modification.
Basically the new system has split property law and contract law, introducing systemic risks
to the banking industry. The money from the home owner payments is going from the
mortgage servicer to the investors in the contract. Only the investors can agree to a change
in the system, and getting them to come to the table is like pulling teeth. Meanwhile the
servicer adds on secret fees, deducts them from the home owner correct payments, so as far
as the investors are concerned, it looks like the home owner is in default.
Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) talked about how the dual process was a major
problem. Constituents come to his office with transcripts of conversations with the
institutions involved, where they are then hit with ambushes and surprise penalties, when
they had done nothing wrong, according to the contracts.
He went on to explain what he thought was the business case that it is in the interests of the
banks, adjacent home owner values, to let a home owner who can afford the payments, to
keep the home, and not foreclose, so why is that not what is happening? Why can’t we align
those interests and save our economy?
The Prof explained two reasons why not.
1. The servicers make more profits through foreclosures than by letting the home
owners continue paying on their contracts.
2. 40% of mortgages in USA have not been securitized, but the value of the properties
is now underwater (value below what is still to be paid) such that the total value of
what is underwater, is more than the total assets of all the banks in the USA. Those
banks try to stretch out into the future how long until they take the loss on their
books.
AG Tom said the quality of decision making smacks of incompetence, combined with the
servicers having been asked to take on a different kind of business, which conflicts with their
traditional culture.
Solution Suggestions (0 Nov 17)

Senator Dodd asked if all the panelists agreed with what Senator Bennett had said .

In summary there was a chorus of yes’s but then there were qualifications.
Ms T said the 2 track system needs to be ended; the complicated rules need restructuring,
and the fees conditions need to be regulated.
Senator Daniel Akak (D Hawaii) talked about the national disaster, the disaster in his state,
our business here is legislation, but if the problem is non-compliance with the laws, what
recommendations do you have for this to be fixed?
Ms T said that legal representation for home owners can solve it, but money has not been
appropriated to support the legal services and mediation needed.
AG Tom echoed this. Their investigation unfinished, but they expect it will take months
rather than years. He thinks
 The dual track has to be stopped.
 The fees need to be regulated.
 2nd lien is a major problem.
 There is massive insurance fraud and abuse.
The Prof says to take MERS type enterprises out of the picture, have some federal agency
administer this, such as courts already experienced with bankrupsy. Legislate a new type of
bankrupsy law just for mortgage foreclosure threatened. Where loan modification is
affordable to the participants, offer cookie cutter standard solutions.
Solutions Elusive (0 Nov 17)

Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) had some subjective questions about impartiality and
getting worse.
The Prof repeated some stuff he had said earlier, and pointed out that the investors bought
in good faith what other actors screwed up.
AG Tom said the actors need to change their paradigm from the current system to solve
some specific problems. Home owners should only have to deal with one person for
everything to do with their mortgage, the contracts need enforcement, 2 nd lien conflicts need
to be resolved.
Ms BoA and Mr Chase said these problems do not apply to them.
Senator Reed asked them about their changes in policies to supposedly fix this.
Mr Chase said that as time goes on, the problem will diminish.
My notes failed to identify who said that in the mean time, there will continue to be massive
foreclosures triggered by the toxic secret fees.
Senator Dodd said the new financial reform was supposed to deal with crises, we are in crisis
now, how come it is not dealing with this?

AG Tom said the new financial reform people have not been helping with this, he would
love to talk with them to find out why not.
Mr Chase says we need to be careful about changing systems. It sounds like he is
disconnected from what they been talking about for the last 2 hours where bankers changing
the old system was how we got into this mess.
Someone else said (again missing from my notes … I think Dodd) that every foreclosure
lowers all properties in the same block by 5% of value.
Ms BoA agrees with Mr Chase. There’s not a damn thing the banks can do to fix this,
because of the contractual obligations with the investors.
There was back and forth about some issues previously discussed, where it was kind of
decided that AG Tom would invite the investors to sit at his table with the AGs from the 50
states, and get their side of the story from the horse’s mouths.
Mr Chase and Ms BoA unsure this would fix the problems.
One senator asked Mr Chase and Ms BoA if they contesting Ms T’s picture.
Ms BoA says her picture not apply to them because for most of their loans they are all the
actors in one box.
The Prof says most servicers are not in Ms BoA situation.
Mr Chase says Ms T’s picture makes no sense. They make money by keeping loans with any
home owner able to pay on contract.
Sen Dodd says there will be another hearing, since many issues left unresolved.
Then there was the question about statistics with non-judicial states vs. judicial states, does
that explain different patterns.
Ms BoA said it coincidental. The issues mainly relate to unemployment and other economic
factors in the various states.
Ms T said there have been studies showing the causative factors are how much time the
accused home owners get to defend themselves.
Someone said that 30% foreclosed sales are cash, not conventional mortgages. What’s going
on there?
Explanation … investor confidence in rental property growth
My notes end there.
House Hearing (0 Nov 19)

Apparently around the same time as the Senate Banking Committee, which I got to watch on
C-Span, there was another hearing on the House side, which I will identify better when I nail
down more details.

One of the people testifying at that hearing was Commissioner Walsh, Comptroller of the
Nation’s Currency.149 This agency is supposed to be supervising the mortgage servicers, and
the largest banks in USA. The Banking Oligarchy has used holes, in the bank examiner
systems, to drive our economy into the toilet.
Foreclosure and US Courts (0 Oct 10)

23 states of USA are “judicial foreclosure” states, meaning the bank must sue the allegedly
defaulting homeowner and have a judge sign-off on the decision before evicting the tenants.
The other 27 states require simple notification, followed-up with an eviction notice;
therefore, the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the foreclosed homeowner if they
wish to state their case in court.
Some banks don’t wait on the foreclosure process. They send contractors in to change locks
on people homes, so they cannot get in.150 It remains to be seen if the courts will allow this
practice. Jon Stewart’s video talked about one place where a bank was doing lock changing
on a home they did not have any legal right to foreclose.
A homeowner in Massachusetts (a non-judicial state) was facing foreclosure and decided
to sue the lender. Due to the fact that this homeowner needed to prove his case, there were
depositions involving several of the lenders’ “foreclosure team.” One of those deposed said
she signed 8,000 foreclosure documents without even reviewing the paperwork. 151
Toxic Foreclosure Documents (0 Oct 16)

A common problem for ordinary consumers are documents from the banking industry with
astronomical volume of pages of microscopic print, which sometimes do not get studied as
thoroughly as they should. We consumers have always suspected the documents are
needlessly complicated, for the purpose of short changing us. With the banks buying and
selling the right to bill consumers using these documents, which may contain errors, this
practice is turning around to bite the industry which created them.
When the Massachusetts homeowner’s attorney reviewed documents, it was found that one
lender was foreclosing even though they didn’t legally own the mortgage note. In other
words, the bank was foreclosing on property they didn’t even have a claim
for! Apparently this is a common practice, according to multiple news stories.
Congress passed a bill demanding that state courts accept out-of-state documents, which
would have accelerated the banking fraudulent abuse. This will be the second bill President
Obama vetos, using pocket veto of returning it to Congress unsigned.152
149 http://www.loansafe.org/comptroller-walsh-testifies-foreclosure-mortgage
150 CBS Investigation, Sep 28 2010.
151 Foreclosure Errors Virtually Guarantee a Double Dip in Housing, October 2010 article on Land Colt
Trading Blog.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has requested several Banks to stop
foreclosures pending further investigation.153
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and Texas
Attorney General Greg Abbott called on lenders to suspend foreclosure actions until they
can ensure that banks have followed proper procedures. 154
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal last week asked a state court to freeze
all home foreclosures for 60 days. 155
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has asked a federal prosecutor to review
thousands of Ohio foreclosures. 156
States at Greatest Risk of Housing Fraud (0 Oct 11)’

Florida, New Jersey, Virginia and Arizona are most vulnerable to mortgage fraud. 157
Florida Fraudulent Foreclosures (0 Oct 10)

Under Florida Law, documents need to be notarized, certifying who owns property, who has
a legal claim to foreclose it, before filing those documents to justify legal action. Researchers
with Ice Legal found tons of documents where there was a huge discrepancy between date
of document, and date of issuance of the notary authority used. This meant their opponents
were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also
meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even
prosecuted.158
Ice Legal confronted the foreclosure firm, on behalf of their clients, but were told that the
filings were just a mistake, so Ice Legal moved to depose the people whose names were on
the apparently fraudulent foreclosure documents. This led to the foreclosures being
dropped instead. The Ices had won their cases, but Stern's practices remained under wraps.
"This was done to cover up fraud," Tom fumes. "It was done precisely so they could try to
hit a reset button and keep us from getting the real goods."159
Florida Attorney General has opened investigations into multiple players in the foreclosure
business.160
157 Mortgage Fraud: New Schemes Emerge; July 26 2010 Bank Info Security.
158 Fannie and Freddie’s Foreclosure Barons, Aug 4 2010 Mother Jones.
159 Fannie and Freddie’s Foreclosure Barons, Aug 4 2010 Mother Jones.
160 GMAC Foreclosure Probe Widens, Sep 24 2010 Mother Jones.

Bank of America (0 Oct 12)

Bank of America Corp (BofA) extended a freeze on foreclosures to all 50 states as concern
spread among federal and local officials that homes are being seized based on false data. 161
Several other banks have freezes in only some states, based on where they are more likely to
get caught doing fraudulent behavior.
At least seven states are investigating claims that home lenders and loan servicers took
shortcuts to speed foreclosures. Attorneys general in Ohio and Connecticut have said
some of the practices used by banks to take away homes may amount to fraud. 162
December 2009, Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home and paid for
it free and clear, without using any mortgage. Seven months later he was surprised when
Bank of America foreclosed on a mortgage he had never had.163
This was not a case of Identity Theft, but an alleged case of Bank and Lawyer Fraud, and
court system overwhelmed with foreclosure cases.
"The evidence doesn't matter. The proof doesn't matter. Due process doesn't matter," said
Ms. Asbury, the attorney. "The only thing that matters is that they get rid of these cases."164
Mr. Grodensky said he spent months trying to figure out what happened but said his
questions to Bank of America and to the law firm Florida Default Law Group, which
handled the foreclosure were not answered. Florida Default Law Group could not be
reached for comment, despite several attempts by phone and e-mail. Mr. Grodensky said he
has filed a claim with his title insurance company, but that, too, has not resulted in any
action.
It wasn't until September, when Mr. Grodensky brought his problem to the attention of the
Sun Sentinel, that it began to be resolved.
Bank of America eventually acknowledged they made error(s) and will correct at the bank
expense, said spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens. "It looks like it was a mistake in
communication between us and the attorneys handling the foreclosure," said Ms. Bauwens.
It turns out that it was a mistake by the Bank, and stonewalling of Mr. Grodensky’s efforts
to get this resolved.
Prior to Mr. Grodensky buying the property, a prior owner had had a mortgage with
Countrywide, and in 2008 a foreclosure was filed with the court, then Bank of America took
over Countrywide. In 2009 Grodensky purchased the property with a “short sale” meaning
the lender agrees to accept less money than the mortgage value. The sale was recorded in
161 Bank of America extends Freeze on Foreclosures to all 50 states, Oct 08 2010 Bloomberg News.
Obama will not ban home repossessions ‘fraud’, Oct 12 2010 BBC News.
162 Bank of America extends Freeze on Foreclosures to all 50 states, Oct 08 2010 Bloomberg News.
163 Foreclosure errors the result of a swamped system, Oct 09 2010 Florida Sun Sentinel.

December 2009 at the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office. Grodensky’s

money was deposited with Bank of America, which failed to put a stop to
the foreclosure case.165
"From the court's point of view, we have no way of knowing that someone sells a house
unless they tell us," said Judge Tobin. "The bank would first have to tell the lawyers, and the
lawyers would presumably ask the court for an order dismissing the case." Thus, the court
system has no idea how often the banks make this kind of error of paperwork omission. 166
Plus there’s no correlation made between the court case info and updates to the Property
Appraiser’s Office.
GMAC (0 Oct 12)

September 13, 2010, the nation's fifth largest mortgage company, GMAC, stopped
foreclosures in 23 states, including in Florida, after questions were raised about false
documents used in court.167
Foreclosure Defense Lawyers say that the kind of problem they found in the GMAC
Stephan deposition, they have also found in depositions with many other banks, including
JP Morgan Chase and One West Bank (formerly Indy Mac Federal).168
GMAC Mortgage, a multibillion-dollar housing subsidiary of Ally Financial, may "need to
take corrective action in connection with some foreclosures" and had halted parts of the
foreclosure process in 23 states, including Florida, a foreclosure hotspot. According to a
GMAC spokeswoman, some minor, non-factual errors caused a hiccup in their foreclosure
pipeline. The facts are coming out that the situation is far more serious,169 such in as this
deposition.
Prosecuting attorney: "So other than the due date and the balances due, is it correct that
you do not know whether any other part of the affidavit that you sign is true?"
Stephan: "That could be correct."
There's one problem with this: According to federal rules of civil procedure, affidavits like
the kind Stephan was signing "must be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that
would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant is competent to testify on the
matters stated." In other words, if you sign a foreclosure affidavit, you have to know what
that document says—indeed, you should be so familiar with it that you could defend its
contents in court. But GMAC's Stephan conceded that he really didn't know what those tens
167 CBS Investigation, Sep 28 2010.
Obama will not ban home repossessions ‘fraud’, Oct 12 2010 BBC News.
168 Mistakes widespread on foreclosures lawyers say, Sep 27 2010 USA Today.
169 A Crack in Wall Street’s Foreclosure Pipeline, Sep 22 2010 Mother Jones.

of thousands of documents, used to foreclose on homeowners around the country, actually

said.
In recent years, as the number of foreclosures on banks' books mounted, some came to rely
on what critics call "robo signers"—employees whose job it is to sign countless documents
to keep the foreclosure process chugging along. Since this process is in violation of federal
law, both the employees are crooked, and whoever told them to do this. It may even fall
under the organized crime statutes.
If they been doing this for years, how can bank executives now claim they are ignorant of
the practice? Who hired them? Often the banks sub-contracted to other enterprises to
perform some tasks, and selected the lowest bidder, without looking into how they did the
work. If you pay some person or company to do something, and if what they doing is illegal,
do you share any culpability for those actions?
If they going to ignore the law, why do they use real person names on the documents?
When I worked at a certain company some decades ago, consumers were sent “past due”
notices signed by a non-existent employee name. When consumers called to complain about
any alleged errors in our paperwork, they were told the employee, by that name, had been
fired for being rude to customers, then the system got updated to use a different fraudulent
employee name for subsequent “past due” notices. The purpose of this was to take the wind
out of the sails of irate customers.
“The way the plaintiffs’ lawyers have handled this has corrupted our legal system,” said
Thomas Cox, a Maine lawyer whose deposition of a GMAC executive in June helped
prompt the current disclosures. “They tried to manufacture foreclosures the way you’d
manufacture cars, on an assembly line. It can’t be done that way.170
Iowa and Texas attorneys general have opened investigations into GMAC's mortgage
practices.171
Ohio has filed suit accusing the lender Ally Financial and its GMAC Mortgage division of
fraud in approving scores of foreclosures.172
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said Ally’s alleged fraud was widespread.
"Everything that we have seen indicates that there may have been thousands of cases where
they systematically defrauded the court by filing affidavits under oath that claimed personal
knowledge where the signer did not have that knowledge. In an individual case, if an
attorney filed a false affidavit, that would result in swift and severe sanctions, disciplinary
misconduct and so forth. The fact that this may have done on a mass scale is pretty
breathtaking to us." 173
171 GMAC Foreclosure Probe Widens, Sep 24 2010 Mother Jones.
172 Ohio AG Sues Ally Financial for Foreclosure Fraud, Oct 07 2010 Democracy Now.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper also announced Wednesday he’s begun
investigating fifteen lenders, including Ally, and has asked them all to freeze foreclosures
during the probe. 174
US Attorney General Eric Holder meanwhile said the Justice Department is looking into the
improper foreclosures. 175
JP Morgan Chase (0 Oct 10)

I have had personal experiences with these people.
I was traveling across Southern Illinois when I had car trouble, took to at Goodyear dealer
and got Great Service. They had an offer there to get a Goodyear credit card, which I
decided to apply for. Chase rejected my application because “I was not local.” What does
this mean, I asked? My place of residence was not in the Chicago area, where the application
was processed, I lived many many miles away. But the Goodyear dealer where I got serviced
was also many many miles away. Why have this promotion at Goodyear dealers all over the
USA, if all applications from people not in Chicago will be rejected? Why not only do it in
Chicago area? Well the reason is a failure of communication between the Chase employees
who do the promotion, and those who approve the applications.
Long before BP got a black eye thanks to the Gulf Oil spill, I used to buy their gasoline. My
BP gasoline credit card company was bought from BP to Chase. The rules for how many
days before you must pay got changed, so now I was behind in paying. I started to get
recorded phone calls claiming I was behind in paying my Texaco credit card bill. I do not
have, nor have I ever had, a Texaco credit card. I thought this was probably an identity theft
issue, so I would not give out any info to the 1-800 operator, that they did not already have
in the calls (my phone #), because for all I knew, the 1-800 # was a front for the Mafia.
It turned out that Chase has bought up many different gasoline credit card companies, and
makes lots of mistakes with data processing, what is the name of this or that gas company
account held by this or that customer. When finally figured out, they apologized, their error,
nothing bad on me will go to Credit Rating. They lied.
"I'm locked in my bathroom," Nancy Jacobini said on a 911 call. "Somebody broke into
my house!" It was people from JP Morgan Chase changing the locks on a house they
intended to foreclose, one in which they had no legal right to foreclose, they were acting
based on errors in their paperwork, which they had failed to verify. Furthermore banks are
not legally allowed to change the locks on an occupied home. So there are several errors in
that incident.176 Apparently many banks are doing this lock changing activity, on homes they
think they can foreclose, and hiring contractors to do it, who steal some possessions of the
tenants, while they are there.
176 Banks Breaking into Homes in Foreclosure to Change Locks, Oct 6 2010 Huffington Post.

JPMorgan Chase has suspended foreclosures in 23 states. 177

September 27, 2010, JP Morgan Chase & Company learned it faces a legal challenge in Palm
Beach County, Florida, which casts doubt on thousands of foreclosures after a mortgage
executive with JP Morgan admitted she did not verify documents used to justify seizing
people's homes.178
In May, an Ice Legal attorney took the deposition of Chase's Cottrell, whose firm is a
subsidiary of JP Morgan Chase. In that deposition, Cottrell conceded that she didn't have the
"personal knowledge" required to sign the foreclosure documents that crossed her desk. If
they execute 18,000 cases a month, as she described in the May deposition, then there's no
way bank employees who sign off can have personal knowledge of every document, critics
argue. As Palm Beach, Florida-based defense attorney Margery Golant says, "They don't
have any personal knowledge of this stuff. They've made a mockery out of the legal
system."179
One West Bank (0 Oct 10)

A homeowner was engaged in a foreclosure from Indy Mac, now One West Bank. A judge
threw out the case after ruling that the servicer’s use of a robo-signer meant the affidavit —
which establishes basic facts such as the bank’s ownership of a mortgage — had not been
properly reviewed. The judge also concluded that the affidavit was incorrect; IndyMac didn’t
own the mortgage and therefore did not have standing to foreclose. 180
USA Foreclosure Statistics (0 Oct 10)

Realty Trac.
FTC actions fight US crisis (0 Nov 19)

There is a new FTC rule aimed at mortgage-relief scams.181 It bans companies from
accepting fees for mortgage modifications before a homeowner's bank or loan servicer
deems the services rendered acceptable. I do not believe this will help with the larger
scandal of loan servicers adding secret fees deducted from home owner payments, which are
designed to force foreclosure on homes where the mortgage payments were all made on
time.
177 Obama will not ban home repossessions ‘fraud’, Oct 12 2010 BBC News.
178 CBS Investigation, Sep 28 2010
179 A Crack in Wall Street’s Foreclosure Pipeline, Sep 22 2010 Mother Jones.
180 Biggest Banks Ensnared as Foreclosure Paperwork Problem Broadens, Oct 4 2010 Pro Publica.
181 http://www.housingwire.com/2010/11/19/new-ftc-rule-aimed-at-mortgage-relief-scams


Glossary Housing Haiti Version 3.4 Feb 17 Edition

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Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges 2/18/2011 Page 1

1 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Ideological Divides over Haiti (0 Dec 13) .................................................................................15

2 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

R+ (0 Dec 29) .......................................................................................................................40

3 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Nov 16 Congress Oversight Report (0 Nov 18).......................................................................69

Introduction (1 Feb 16)

4 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

5 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Key Resources (1 Feb 1)

6 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Version History (1 Feb 17)

7 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

8 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Courtesy Reminder (1 Feb 17)

9 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Copying Tips (0 Sep 10)

Many of the latest documents have a mixture of English and French.

Adjust the selection from language to language

Haiti Housing Statistics (1 Feb 17)

10 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

% population with access to

11 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Plan for Tent City Refugees (0 Nov 05)

9 Relief Web Sep 21. (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

12 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

• Is there a plan resettling the refugees, and if so, what is it?

Part 1 - Who is in charge and what is the plan?

Part 2 – What are the challenges?

Part 3 – Will it work?

Sidebar – The "Cluster" system in Haiti

13 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Still Unresolved thru 2011 (1 Feb 17)

Alternatives Pricing (0 Dec 28)

replaced. Plus apparently they being replaced by the same quality.

14 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Strategic Housing Plan for 2011 (1 Feb 17)

Ideological Divides over Haiti (0 Dec 13)

15 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Severe Weather (1 Feb 16)

In my opinion, there is a need for a partnership between

• UN humanitarian and other global interventions

• Computer science vendor(s)

Haiti Severe Weather Shelter (0 Dec 28)

16 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Protecting critical documents (1 Feb 17)

Problem Solving Model (1 Feb 07)

(Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

17 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Ideology Political Divisions (1 Feb 17)

Quake Rubble urgency (0 Oct 09)

18 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Solve Rubble by Fastest Economical Means (0 Oct 09)

19 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Rubble is a means to an Economy end (0 Oct 09)

Land Owner Documents (0 Oct 20)

25 More info on this, in a separate chapter here, within Transitional Challenges.

20 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Infrastructure Delays (1 Jan 21)

Apparent orphan children (1 Feb 17)

21 Glossary of Haiti Housing Challenges

Many so-called orphanages are in fact fronts for criminal organizations.