The Municipal Assembly of Funchal unanimously approved, this Tuesday, the 29th of April, the new Municipal Plan for Homeless People (PMPSSA) 2025-2029.
The Plan continues the Municipal Strategy started in 2022 by the current executive and which already has most of its actions in progress.
“With five axes of intervention and 63 concrete measures, the plan already has 54 measures in the execution phase, initiated under the current Municipal Strategy. Only 14% are yet to be implemented, but with a time horizon of 2029,” confirmed Helena Leal, councilor for Social Administration.
She further highlighted that the Plan aims to “organise, innovate, systematise and consolidate the work that has been developed within the scope of the Municipal Strategy, with three major objectives: to prevent, reduce cases of homelessness and better understand the phenomenon, promoting more effective interventions.”
Helena Leal firmly believes in the importance of street teams, created by the municipality and approved by the Municipal Assembly, who work directly with homeless people, and who can make referrals and accompany street dwellers to essential appointments.
This team works on a weekly basis, in conjunction with the Regional Health Service, social entities and health homes, ensuring quick responses to physical and mental health situations.
The councilor recalled that the current municipal executive started with the first two solidarity houses, one for men and one for women, developed actions to prevent and combat stigma, with emphasis on the educational project in schools, which in its first phase has already reached 1,600 children and families in the municipality. The initiative aims to “promote empathy, and raise awareness from an early age of the causes that lead to social exclusion.”
During the current term, and within the scope of the Municipal Strategy, 16 people were removed from the street, who went through an evaluation and training process, revealed Helena Leal.
Removing people from the streets is not enough. Our objective is to create sustained conditions for reintegration, with accommodation, professional occupation, and psychological support. In this sense, she said that the Municipal Programme for Occupation in the Context of Work was adjusted to include homeless people.
Helena reiterates the municipality’s commitment to a humanised, coordinated and lasting response, recognising that “this is not a reality exclusive to Funchal, nor to Madeira, but to the whole country and Europe.” The approach, she argues, has to be collective and participatory, involving everyone.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
