Background. When disasters or crises strike and homes are lost, people don’t always wait for governments and international humanitarian agencies to lend a hand, but instead often rely on those close to them: family and friends. Perhaps because this so-called stealth shelter doesn’t involve four new walls and a roof and is thus often difficult to see, the shelter that family or friends (as well as neighbors) provide to disaster or crisis survivors is often dismissed by some policy-makers and shelter advisors as inappropriate or not “real†shelter. However, hosting by family and friends, or even by strangers, is socially defined, self-selected, culturally appropriate, and typically provided before humanitarian actors arrive and—importantly—long after they leave.
USAID/OFDA and other humanitarian agencies have increasingly recognized in recent years the utility and acceptance of hosting as a form of spontaneous sheltering among affected populations. As a result, USAID/OFDA provides various types of basic support to ensure that hosting doesn’t strain relations or host families’ pocketbooks, while also facilitating its role as a durable shelter solution. Such assistance can entail fuel, education, or livelihood assistance, as well as provision of bedding, cooking and eating utensils, water/sanitation, and shelter upgrades to support additional people living with host families. USAID/OFDA provided many such forms of assistance to host communities in Haiti as part of larger post-earthquake shelter and settlements sector activities.