Tacloban, February 13 2014 — During the first 100 days of the response Shelter Cluster partners have provided close to 500,000 households (2.5 million people) with emergency shelter assistance such as tents and tarpaulins. More than 55,000 households (285,000 people) have received tools, building and roofing materials that enables families to repair their own homes. 40,000 families have received cash with which they can buy building materials and pay labourers. In addition, 2,000 families (10,000 people) have received “core shelters” – these are complete, simple houses of approximately 20 m² that can be extended by the families.
Despite these achievements, affected areas are still in a shelter emergency: on average, the Philippines is hit by 20 major storms per year. This year, survivors of Typhoon Haiyan have already faced two named storms which damaged and destroyed up to 30 per cent of emergency shelters in their paths. The Shelter Cluster anticipates that more emergency shelter materials will have to be replaced over the coming months.
The vast majority of people in need of shelter assistance don’t have a durable roofing solution yet and it is clear that many families will still be living under tarps, leaking and unstable roofs or in tents when the next typhoon season starts.
Shelter self-recovery is taking place at an impressive rate. However, many houses are being “built back worse” with the same vulnerabilities as before. To mitigate this, Shelter Cluster partners are providing the survivors with hands-on training and assistance to facilitate a progressive “build back safer” approach.