Government allocates R$1 billion to actions for the homeless population

Brasilia DF) – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launched, this Monday (11), the Visible Streets Plan – For the Right to the Future of the Homeless Population. The measure promotes the implementation of the National Policy for the Homeless Population and has an initial investment of R$982 million.

In a ceremony at Palácio do Planalto, Lula highlighted the need for government initiatives to support this population and to give visibility to their rights.

“We know that, often, the State does not care for these people, society often does not care for these people and we often pass by them and turn away so as not to see this reality of political, economic and social neglect. of that country. If these people exist, they are to blame, and the blame cannot be any other than the State’s.”

For the president, the population must be committed to electing government officials who are also concerned with social issues.

“When are we going to convince humanity that we were born to live in community, we were not born to live individually, each one living the way they can. The Constitution says that everyone has elementary rights, it is there in the foundation of the article that deals with social issues; the Declaration of Human Rights says, and why can’t we do it? We can’t do it because this achievement that we are having here today is linked to a word called democracy, it is linked to a word called commitment”,

highlighted.

The launch takes place amid the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, completed on Sunday (10), and complies with the determination of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The government highlighted that actions for the homeless population have been part of the priorities of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship since the beginning of the administration, even before the decision of the STF minister, Alexandre de Moraes, in August this year, within the scope of the Allegation of Non-compliance with Fundamental Precepts (ADPF) 976. The ADPF was initiated last year questioning the effective implementation of the national policy, established in 2009.

The Visible Streets Plan includes 99 actions that will be developed based on seven axes: social assistance and food security; health; institutional violence; citizenship, education and culture; housing; work and income; and data production and management. The coordination involves 11 ministries, in partnership with state and municipal governments and in dialogue with social movements and other representative bodies and instances.

According to the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, more than 221 thousand people live on the streets in the country.

“These are people, including children, who live in extreme poverty, subject to intense vulnerability, exposed to all types of violence”,

he said, explaining that the Visible Streets Plan demonstrates the federal government’s commitment to transforming the promises contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into reality.

Hostile architecture

The celebration of the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Palácio do Planalto involved the announcement of other initiatives, such as the regulation of the Padre Júlio Lancellotti Law, the establishment of a working group to produce information on the homeless population; the establishment of the National Citizen Housing Program; and the official launch of the National Human Rights Observatory (ObservaDH), established in September.

The Padre Júlio Lancellotti Law prohibits so-called hostile architecture in public spaces, such as the construction or installation of structures to hinder access for homeless residents. Approved by parliamentarians last year, the law was vetoed by former president Jair Bolsonaro, but the veto was overturned by Congress and the law was promulgated.

The name of the law is a reference to the religious priest Júlio Lancellotti, who, since 1986, has promoted social work aimed mainly at the homeless population in the city of São Paulo. Coordinator of the Pastoral do Povo de Rua, Lancellotti went viral when he used a sledgehammer to remove sharp stones that had been installed by the São Paulo City Council on an overpass in the city, to prevent the place from being used as a shelter by the homeless population.

Present today at the ceremony at Palácio do Planato, Father Júlio praised the recreation of public policies for groups that have been made invisible in recent years. “We fought hard to elect you, president, so that you, returning to Palácio do Planalto, the poor, the homeless, women, LGBT, indigenous people, African-based religions, those without religion, those who fight for human dignity could return to that palace. And the people of the street, being in this palace, will not have any scratch on the public property, because we are going to preserve what is ours and belongs to the people of the street too”, he said, in reference to the attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília. , on January 8th.

The priest also thanked the regulation of the law that bears his name and demanded the effective implementation of actions in the plan launched this Monday. “Sledgehammer on all hostile architecture, may all hostile architecture be removed and never be implemented again. That we take special care with mental health, with the suffering of the homeless population, is a specific, urgent issue, as it is urgent to have a place to live, but to have the dignity to live, with autonomy, with balance, with affection which is necessary”, he said, also citing violence against the homeless population, including institutional violence.

“The homeless population is treated in a degrading way, with torturous treatment that denies subjectivity, denies love, denies gender, denies ethnicity, denies feelings, denies everything that they carry. Homeless people, homeless people, are neither angels nor demons, they are people and should be treated like people. Article 6 [da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos] which says ‘every human being has the right to be recognized as a person before the law everywhere’, this article needs to be experienced in health, housing, social development, human rights, education, culture, leisure. The people on the street also love it, the people on the street want to be respected in all its dimensions”,

said Father Júlio Lancelotti.

*With information from Agência Brasil

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