A reception and temporary accommodation center will be created in Lagos, in an initiative of the Câmara de Lagos and MAPS – Movement for Support to the Problem of AIDS, which just last week inaugurated, in Faro, the first structure of its kind in the Algarve.
The Center is intended for "people in highly socially vulnerable situations, namely applicants for international protection, as is the most recent case of refugees from the Ukrainian war who seek shelter in this county, homeless people, victims of violence and other social emergency situations», explains the municipality.
The new structure is part of the “Lagos Support Ukraine” project. The planned investment is 111 thousand euros, with a maximum community contribution of 75%, with the 25% of the project's national counterpart financed by the municipality.
The future Center, in fact, was the subject of an application submitted to the Fund for Asylum, Migration and Integration (FAMI), which, if approved, will co-finance the maintenance, equipping and operation of the space, as well as the allocation of a team multidisciplinary technician with experience in the management of this type of accommodation structures.
For its implementation, the Lagos City Council made available a decommissioned school building, in the village of Espiche (freguesia da Luz), which was ceded to MAPS, having also awarded this association a subsidy in the amount of 71.500 euros, intended for carrying out the works adaptation, already in progress.
The structure will be prepared to respond to nine households. The project will encompass not only the accommodation space, but also the support of a social service technician and a support mediator for the activities carried out, creating a safe accommodation that promotes physical and emotional balance as close as possible to a family environment.
«Ensure basic needs, providing well-being and quality of life, support in obtaining social support and in the connection to community services, encourage the construction of individual intervention projects, promoting personal, professional and social skills and competences suitable for each person , are some of the valences of this house that intends to be a home», adds the Municipality.
According to the Municipality of Lagos, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, a total of 156 households, representing 366 people, have resorted to municipal social services, the overwhelming majority of which are women and children.
Monitoring and social support were provided to these refugee families, through the allocation of foodstuffs, hygiene and household cleaning products, as well as through referral and articulation with other entities regarding responses in the areas of Social Security, Health, Education, Training and Employment.
«The availability of accommodation, given the characteristics of the housing market in the municipality, turned out to be the most difficult area to respond to in relation to people who were unable to meet this need through the private rental market, reception by family members or accommodation provided by other companies. families and individuals", admits the municipality. This is a difficulty that the municipality intends to «minimize with the creation of this temporary accommodation centre».
A member of the Lagos Social Network, MAPS is an institution with thirty years of experience in social integration, standing out for the work carried out in the scope of housing in social emergency situations, such as the TMN project and shared residence for people in a homeless situation that has been operating since June 2021 in the city of Lagos, in a space provided by the municipality.
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