The new National Strategy for the Integration of Homeless People (ENIPSSA) includes an alert and prevention system for early intervention to help prevent new cases, which covers, for the first time, Roma people.
The document, which covers the period 2025-2030, was published today in Diário da República and includes four strategic axes, including the promotion of knowledge of the phenomenon, the definition and implementation of an Integrated Alert and Prevention System, the reinforcement of a promotional intervention the inclusion of people at risk and the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of ENIPSSA.
With regard to the strategic axes, the difference between the current and the previous document, which was in force between 2017 and 2023, is the inclusion of the current axis no. 2, which defines and implements the Integrated Alert and Prevention System.
This system aims to provide early intervention and, among the five objectives, defines the prevention of the phenomenon «through the early detection of situations of imminent risk and recurrence, guaranteeing an immediate and social emergency response».
It also provides that prevention and protection measures are guaranteed for particularly vulnerable audiences and, within these audiences, it covers, for the first time, the gypsy population, as well as families with children, people with disabilities, elderly people, people in need of mental health care, people with consumption and dependence on alcohol and/or illicit substances and LGBTI people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex).
Within this axis, it is also planned to ensure the qualification and coordination between services for identifying risk situations and ensuring that a personalized diagnosis and intervention plan is made, «with a view to full social inclusion».
It also includes the definition and implementation of “an integrated and articulated alert system that guarantees the transition of deinstitutionalization and intervention measures in exceptional scenarios”.
The fifth measure within axis no. 2 envisages promoting spaces for dialogue and sharing “in experimental forms of early intervention and social inclusion”.
On the other hand, the axis that defines the reinforcement of an intervention aimed at social inclusion aims, among other objectives, to «ensure that no one has to remain on the street for more than 24 hours».
The first action plan of this strategy must be approved by September 2025, with the next Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security being responsible for appointing the executive management of ENIPSSA, responsible for preparing the respective action plan.
The final strategy execution report should be completed by September 30, 2031.
Until the entry into force of ENIPSSA 2025-2030, on January 1, 2025, ENIPSSA 2017-2023 will remain in operation, which has been extended until December 2024.
ENIPSSA 2025-2030 was also approved by the government of António Costa, with the justification that it was “urgent and urgent, imposing the need to guarantee its continuity in a new programmatic cycle, without interruptions”.
In the most recent count made on the number of people living in a homeless situation in Portugal, it was possible to identify 10.773 cases, 5.975 who were homeless, that is, living on the street, in an emergency shelter or in another precarious location, while the remaining 4.798 did not have a home and lived in temporary accommodation.
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