The hoop homes that are being donated by Esbenshade’s Garden Centre are starting to arrive in Haiti and are already being put together at the YWAM clinic at St. Marcs. There were 200 hoop homes sent to the YWAM centre to help provide some temporary accommodation for the thousands of people who are now homeless in Haiti.

Along with the huts there is also a team of construction volunteers on the ground in Haiti to get the assembly of these houses started. The 200 shelters should be able to provide housing for about 1000 of the homeless. There are plans for more houses to be sent, but there need to be more donations and volunteers for that to happen.

YWAM Haiti is in the planning stages for putting together a temporary tent city to house the many homeless that they are registering in St. Marcs. Most of these people are refugees from Port Au Prince who have moved to St. Marcs after loosing everything in the earthquake. The plan for the tent city is to not only provide food and shelter, but also to provide education and training for the people there to help in the rebuilding of the nation of Haiti.

Here is a short video of what they are hoping to achieve with the hoop homes, including future uses for the shelters once more permanent accommodation is found for the thousands of homeless in Haiti.

You can read a report from the construction crew that just arrive in Haiti here, and find out how to volunteer and donate to the project here.

Gulf Coast Supply and Manufacturing has recently shipped 30 International Relief Homes to Youth With A Mission in Haiti. The homes can be assembled in less than a day by an experienced crew once the foundations have been poured. The home can be assemble on packed dirt, pavers or a concrete pad. In Haiti, where they are prone to hurricanes, they should hopefully use a poured concrete foundation, with the anchor system set-up to withstand hurricane force winds.

The homes are 15 x 18 feet, with two rooms, one door, two windows, two skylights and a guttering system to collect rain water. The homes only cost about $2000 USD each and Gulf Coast is gearing up to produce more of the homes to meet the current need in Haiti for housing.

If you check out the YWAM Haiti website (www.ywamhaiti.org) the video describes how YWAM is in the process of planning and building tent cities to accommodate the refugees who no longer have homes. It’ll be interesting to see how they fit these new kit homes into the plan.

The best way I have to describe the home is akin to an oversized backyard metal shed. I’ve seen many sheds in Australia converted to offices, retreats and bed-rooms, so it looks to me like a similar conversion. I know that the sheds in Australia can be built to withstand cyclone force winds, so I reckon they have done the same thing with these relief homes.

You can read more about the Gulfcoast Relief Homes here.