Chased from their homes by gangs, thousands of Haitians languish in shelters with lives in limbo

A gang rampaged through the Cite Soleil slum, killing and raping and setting fire to hundreds of wood-and-tin homes. Forced out of the neighborhood, one family of four lived on the streets of Port-au-Prince until they were struck by a truck as they slept.

Two brothers, 2 and 9, died in the November accident. Jean-Kere Almicar opened his home to their distraught parents, then another family, then another, until there were nearly 200 people camped out in his front yard and nearby.

They are among more than 165,000 Haitians who have fled their homes amid a surge in gang violence, with nowhere to turn in this capital of nearly 3 million people.

Almicar, who once lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania but moved back to Haiti in 2007, uses his own money.

“There was nothing I could do except tell them to come in,” Almicar said.

“Their home doesn’t exist anymore. If they go back, they’re going to be killed.”

Some 79,000 people are temporarily staying with friends or family, but another 48,000 have crowded into dozens of makeshift shelters like Almicar’s or sought refuge in parks, churches, schools and abandoned buildings in Portau-Prince and beyond. The situation is overwhelming nonprofits and non-governmental organizations.