València (EP).The Valencia City Council will maintain the cold operation until March 1 to respond to the needs of nocturnal accommodation and facilitate coat clothing to homeless people who spend the night in the street, according to municipal sources confirmed.
In respect, the Councilor for Social Services, Isabel Lozano, said that this device, which began on December 1, will last until March 1, 2022, "and take special importance these days of more icy temperatures"."In Valencia we do not leave anyone behind," he stressed.
In that sense, he stressed that the Consistory invests more than two million annually by making available to 337 emergency accommodation places, plus another 329 in the field of cooperation and immigration (asylum seekers and other cases).In total, 666 places in different accommodation resources, of which 53 are extra places for the cold operation.
In addition, the Social Emergency Care Center (CAES), located on Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Tres Forques neighborhood this year is "flexible to the point of admitting pets", will open 120 days in the year, according to theAgreement signed with Cruz Red, with a municipal budget of 101.000 euros, in front of the subsidy of 16.000 euros last year.
The voluntary Red Cross personnel have been in charge of relocating the furniture so that safety distances can be maintained, and have organized kits and food so that no one lacks anything.
This year the new agreement between the City Council and the Red Cross will allow this center to open the doors 120 days a year, when the inclement weather or extraordinary circumstances put the health of the homeless.
The councilor has enforced the importance of this type of services during the cold season "within this framework in the city we have 648 places, and if there was a greater demand we would enable other spaces, this is a fundamental service for people who need aPlace to sleep and take refuge when it is cold, it is also offered food, their clothes are washed and they can shower or stay here the time they want ".
He also pointed out that the low demand center also gives the opportunity to social welfare and entities to maintain the relationship with some of these people and be able to help them beyond the moment of urgency.
"These attention give us an opportunity to establish a closer connection with these people living in the streets and derive them to insertion and training processes to achieve their social inclusion," explained the councilor.
Más servicios
In that sense, he stated that "all this is included within the framework of the new agreement that offers more and better services" to users and includes, for example 50 displacements outside the city and the authorization of other spaces and the occupation of sports centeror other municipal spaces if there was an emergency.
In the so -called "Cold Operation", the Municipal Section of Social Attention to Exclusion intervenes, the Center for Attention to Ceiling, the Local Police X4 Unit, attached to the CASC, the Immigration Support Center, the Emergency DepartmentSocial and the rest of the local police units, with the collaboration of the Red Cross, the Health and Community Foundation, and Cáritas Diocesana de València.
"Among all, a fundamental task is made so that no one is cold during winter in Valencia and this new agreement reinforces the tools to respond to the needs of homeless people, both in specific situations due to cold or heat, and for emergenciessocial or climatic, as well as the ability to initiate more intense processes of change and social insertion that can end in an autonomous life outside the street situation, ".