BACOLOD City – The Anti-Mendicancy Task Force of the city’s Department of Social Service and Development (DSSD) is considering providing financial assistance and temporary shelters to street dwellers here.
Wendy Castro, the taskforce’s focal person, said they will conduct a committee meeting to plan out what would be the measures to be undertaken by the city government relative to the street dwellers.
Part of the proposal, she said, is to provide them financial aid through the sustainable livelihood program extended by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as well as tents and folding beds in order for them to have a comfortable place when they sleep.
Castro, however, clarified that the proposed financial assistance of P10,000 for each family is only for street dwellers who are residents of this city.
She further explained that with the proposed assistance they are not tolerating the street dwellers, but it is just a way of alleviating their situation.
These street dwellers, she said, include beggars, those who work as porters and barkers during day time, and some are construction workers.
Latest data from the DSSD showed that there are 45 families and 34 individuals who are street dwellers, or a total of 157 individuals.
But, Castro said some of them are not residents of the city.
During the taskforce’s mapping operations in the evening of August 28 and 29, majority of these individuals were sleeping in the downtown area, particularly along the streets of San Juan, Luzuriaga and Gonzaga, as well as in the city’s public plaza./PN
