With great joy and excitement, the entry milestone of the first participants belonging to the Living First program of the Ministry of Social Development and Family, aimed at homeless people seeking access, was held in the Koke Park sector of Rancagua. to reintegration, through the delivery of a shared temporary home that will allow them to start a new life in society.
The purpose of the initiative is to provide a solution to a group of the population that requires significant levels of support to escape homelessness, through the provision of housing, health and social integration services. To achieve this, homeless people are assigned a place in a shared, safe, accessible and stable home for two people.
Such is the case of the first two participants of this program in the O’Higgins region, Nelson Cabezas and Sergio Vargas, who received the keys to the apartment where they will reside, from now on, from the Seremi of Social Development and Family, Nayadeth Ahumada Herrera, who expressed her full agreement and happiness for this great milestone for the benefit of homeless people.
“It is a day of great happiness for us, since we fulfill a commitment that we had signed a long time ago. Today the two incomes of people who for a time were homeless and who, in addition, are elderly, and who after a long time once again have a home and a decent place to live, are realized,” Ahumada highlighted.
The regional head of the Social Development and Family portfolio noted that “we were sharing with them and learning about the conditions in which they now live. “They are very nice and cozy apartments, which give dignity and quality of life to the people who benefit from this program.”
In total, the Housing First program includes 22 places for homeless people, who are residing in nine apartments and two houses, with the Caritas Rancagua Foundation, the executing entity of the program, who will be in charge of its support and implementation.
In this regard, Cesar Morales, executive secretary of the Caritas Rancagua Foundation, remarked that “it is a great joy and we thank the Seremi of Social Development and Family for being able to work with people in vulnerable situations, who can have their shared apartment, leaving their previous condition. . It is a tremendous joy that they can leave the shelters, the residences, and have their own space, where they will form a community that will reinsert them. “Maybe they can recover their families, their friends, have a space to receive these visits, and they will live comfortably and with dignity.”
This program introduces a change in the orientation of social policies towards homeless people, considering that access to housing, which provides security, stability and privacy, is the starting point of the process, and not the final stage, from which the process aimed at overcoming the street situation is facilitated.
Nelson Cabezas, one of the first participants of the Housing First program, expressed his excitement upon joining this initiative, who previously went from living on the streets to spending the night in shelters: “I am grateful for this program, I hope that more possibilities will be generated for others.” people and are welcomed in these spaces, who know how to take care of these residences. “I am very grateful because I am not on the street, I am in a decent place.”
It should be noted that the program keeps its applications open throughout the year. Women and men aged 50 or over can participate, with trajectories of at least 5 years living on the street, with some degree of biopsychosocial deterioration (excluding severe dependency), preferably living on public roads, without access to no type of accommodation.
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