Owner gives over factory to homeless countrymen

Delinois said other business owners "cleared out" homeless Haitians from their properties, even calling authorities to help evict them.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, February 18, 2010 (AFP) - Richmond Delinois's brick factory has not operated for over a month, but it is filled with noise and people -- homeless countrymen he has allowed to take refuge in its courtyard.

"I could never throw them out," he told AFP of the hundreds of people who have set up a makeshift campsite in courtyard of his family business since Haiti's January 12 quake.

"People in the neighborhood know us. The gate was open and the wall on the other side was destroyed so people came in from both sides," he said.

"We had to stop work," added Delinois, 33, gesturing towards his factory's new residents.

Before the quake, 32 employees worked here, but now 20 of them have taken refuge at their workplace with their families and others, living in makeshift tents.

No space is left unused, with people stringing up fabric from unused machines to block off their living space and hanging washing out to dry on stacks of bricks.

"We call this apartment 1A, this one apartment 1B," Delinois said, smiling sadly and pointing left and right as he walked through the camp.

"We leave them alone. We don't have a choice."

The business owner has been turned into the head of his own small relief operation, opening two bathrooms at the factory to his new residents.

A guard watches over the factory site all day and Delinois has made his two water tanks available to the homeless Haitians that crowd his business, allowing them to maintain at least basic hygiene.

"The owner is really good to us, he comes, he talks to us," said Homere Auguste, 38, as she washed her dishes in a corner of the courtyard that has been turned into an open-air kitchen.

"He is kind," adds Dieuner Fairestal, 30, who had not met Delinois before the quake.

"When I saw them here, I thought to myself that this could have happened to my family," Delinois said.

"You have to help people who have nothing," he added, while acknowledging that he was reaching crisis point financially himself.

"The problem is debt, we have a lot of debts, they are a worry," he said.

"Clients paid for their orders in cash," and one of them recently returned demanding a refund.

"Some of them don't understand. They come from various social classes, so some understand and others don't," he said.

His eyes downcast, Delinois said other business owners "cleared out" homeless Haitians from their properties, even calling authorities to help evict them.

"If I could, I'd start the factory up again tomorrow, but I can't. We need space for trucks, there would be sand everywhere, the generator makes a lot of noise and there would be lots of dust."

Before the devastating 7.0 magnitude quake that leveled much of this city, Delinois's factory was running just fine and his employees earned up to 10 times more than the daily salary paid to state employees.

Today, his employees are in trouble.

"They are suffering. They have four, six children and they also have debts," he said.

"I would never put them on the street," he pledged. "The equipment doesn't mean anything to me, it can wait."

Delinois would like to see the Haitian government rise to the occasion, but he is not expecting much.

He has asked the mayor of his municipality to add his factory to the list of workplaces eligible for a "cash-for-work" program, set up to help rebuild Haiti and employ those left homeless and jobless.

So far, he hasn't heard back.