Some fear that women and children are being left vulnerable.

"Since we came here to this shelter, we don't know if the Haitian government exists, " said Elvariest Paulveret, 51, standing in the dusty yard of the warehouse.

"We have almost two months that we have been sleeping on cement, and since then we have yet to come across a representative of the government to tell us anything, " he said. "We used to sleep on beds, but the floodwaters washed away our beds and everything else we owned."

After fights broke out at the depot a few weeks into the food handout, the World Food Program and a local government disaster committee halted distributions.

PROBLEMS AT SHELTERS

"It hurt me to do it, but the shelters are not managed at all, " said Alix Loriston, the WFP coordinator in Gonaives. "The conditions for safety, conditions for humanitarian assistance for a human being, are not there."

For weeks, U.N. officials have asked Moise to relocate thousands of displaced Haitians. But neither the mayor nor anyone else in the government complied until Friday, when the president personally got involved.

"We need better organized shelters in another area where we can have better controls, including the protection of women, " said Boutroue, the U.N. official.

With donor response lagging, government officials have turned to their own measly coffers to begin the process of rebuilding. Using $200 million saved from discounted oil purchases from Venezuela, the Haitian government bought garbage trucks and bulldozers to assist in the cleanup and set aside $17 million to be split among 142 counties.

Bien-Aimé said the government is seeking tents to provide temporary housing. But the country needs permanent housing.

A JOB PROGRAM

To put money in people's pockets, the government has joined the U.N. and the U.S. Agency for International Development in a job program, paying locals to shovel mud. Wearing gray and orange T-shirts, the street cleaners receive $3.75 a day.

While the jobs will help a few people, many others remain unemployed with no means to earn an income -- except through their food rations. Rice, beans, powdered milk and sugar have emerged as items that people can buy and sell. Some aid workers say that even though they don't condone such selling, they understand it. Food and water are not enough for survival.

Some local officials are less sympathetic. They accuse recipients of lying to receive more than their share.

"The people seem to think that in the aftermath of a natural disaster, the aid is indefinite and they should be receiving food and more food, " said Marc-Elie St. Hillien, a government appointee involved in the recovery. "If they spend a week or two without receiving any food, it's as if they have never received any at all."

The World Food Program concedes that some people may have fallen through the cracks. Last week, it increased the number of distribution sites in the city and provided new ration cards for cereal, beans and oil. The change was prompted by complaints that lines were too long, and that women were being beaten and robbed of their rations.

"We have to find a good solution where the most vulnerable can get food, " said Loriston, the World Food Program coordinator.