Cebu City’s Php4-M Temporary Shelter For Street Dwellers Nears Completion

Cebu City Government’s Php4 million temporary shelter for street dwellers in Barangay Lorega, near the Gawad Kalinga-City housing project, is expected to be completed in two weeks, an official said.

Dr. Ester Concha, chief of the city’s Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS), said the two-storey facility can house 200 individuals.

Concha said the DSWS has also received a Php3.6 million fund from the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD) 7 to implement a comprehensive program for street children, families and indigenous people, particularly the Badjao community.

Concha said the amount will be used for more “reaching out” operations and case management of street children and families, and for maintaining a database of street children, “unattached adults” and families at risk in the streets.

She said the program will be integrated into the other programs of the city that involve taking care of the welfare of street children and families.

Concha said the city has been conducting “rescue operations” to get street dwellers from the streets at night, but the operation has nothing to do with the ongoing 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in Cebu.

”We simply do not want them to sleep in the streets at night and have prepared a place for them to sleep,” Concha said.

Concha said they have so far rescued 25 families from the city’s streets.

Some 15,000 church officials, priests and lay persons from 71 countries are in Cebu until Jan. 31 for the international religious event.

Concha said the rescue operation was conducted in coordination with the Cebu Provincial Government because many of the street dwellers are from the towns.

Those who want to go home will be allowed to go home immediately, she said.

The city has set up a temporary shelter for the rescued street dwellers at the abandoned Compana Maritima building but they will be transferred to the temporary shelter in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel once it is finished, concha said.(PNA) PGL/EB/EDS