12 months rent

In Haiti, tenants in rented apartments and houses pay their rent in 6 or 12 months intervals. Compared to rent in Boston, where I come from, rent here is nothing, but for a Haitian family that has limited or no income, it's a ton of money! And when they can't pay it, they get kicked out. Since January, every time we walk through the Ravine, we see little shacks with padlocks on them, the evidence of families that could not pay their rent for 2009. Some of my regular patients have just disappeared. Others have been forced to move into already crowded one room homes with their friends and relatives. It makes me want to buy a giant pair of loppers.