The Center for Social Emergency Accommodation (CAES) in the Algarve, under the responsibility of MAPS and which will appear in Faro, is “completing some of the works” after having “suffered complications and delays due to the pandemic”. Despite this, it is expected that it will be able to open its doors in February and start hosting the first people in early March.
After ceding the two vacant buildings of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Algarve, in Patacão, and signed a cooperation protocol between the Municipality of Faro and MAPS – Movement in Support of the Problem of AIDS, institution dedicated mainly to supporting people in a situation of exclusion or homelessness, work has begun to requalify the spaces.
«We had the idea that, by the end of 2020, we would be able to open CAES. This was our goal, but we had several surprises along the way», says Fábio Simão, president of MAPS, to the Sul Informação.
With the pandemic inflating prices and making it difficult to deliver materials, and with some of the workers contracting Covid-19, the work was delayed.
«We spent several months waiting for equipment, for parts that sold out everywhere and we fought until we managed to find them. There were many little things that had a big impact on the results. A week passed, two, three, until the time came when I had to stop the work».
“There were several mishaps here, but we are now trying to make sure everything goes well in this final stretch”, says the MAPS president.
Now, after the various delays, «we are going to try to finish the works by the end of February», being that «what was more difficult, what had to do with the first building, which was older, since the electricity change, the plumbing, the construction of the bathrooms from scratch, is already resolved. At the moment, we are finishing the final touches to complete it”.
The work on the second building remains to be done, in which «the priorities will be the kitchen and laundry, two essential points of CAES». The rest of the interventions will be «very simple, dealing, for example, with changing lights and lamps, things that we believe are quick», explains Fábio Simão.
MAPS's hope is that CAES will be able to come into full operation in March, «but these things are not just up to us».
«It will depend on the signing of a protocol with Social Security and also on the recruitment of the team. Unfortunately, it's not like that from one day to the next. It is a large team, which will have to be chosen and formed, but we hope that, in the first quarter of this year, it will be at 100%”, underlines the MAPS president.
CAES do Algarve will have the capacity to accommodate around 50 people, but initially «we will create a response for 25 people».
All Algarve residents who need this support, from Sotavento to Barlavento, will be welcomed, with 20 beds being created for temporary accommodation, lasting three months, under a protocol with Social Security, and five for emergency accommodation, assigned to the Chamber of Faro, but whose number is not fixed, for those situations of 48 and 72 hours.
These beds will be for anyone, from any family, who finds themselves in an unprotected situation. “Imagine that your house has a fire, you are homeless, you have nowhere to go for two or three days, or for two or three months. As long as you are unable to find a home and find your way around, you can stay at CAES».
Since the beginning of the project, MAPS launched the challenge to raise funds, materials and equipment to be installed in the spaces of CAES, with several contributions having been made by companies from the Algarve.
«We had several donations and support of paints, tiles, both for walls and floors, electrical material, as well as kitchen equipment and furniture that will be restored to beautify our CAES».
As for the future of the Algarve Social Emergency Accommodation Centre, Fabio Simão adds that there is information that cannot yet be released. «We are trying to do something more than a simple CAES, but, at the moment, we are still working with Social Security, in a challenge to think of something bigger».
“As we still don't have anything approved, I can't say anything else…”, concludes the MAPS president.
Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação
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