Piotr Olech
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
It is undoubtedly a great honour for me to be
here as one of the lecturers. The honour is even greater since I find myself
among the persons, groups and organisations renowned for their work on social
exclusion.
The topic of my speech is the problem of social
exclusion in the context of homelessness in Poland. I represent the Pomeranian
Forum in Aid of Getting Out of Homelessness, Polish organisation that
constitutes a platform of co-operation on the issue of homelessness between two
sectors: the sector of NGOs and the sector of public institutions. The Forum
comprises over 30 organisations and institutions from the Pomerania province in
Poland.
At the very beginning, let us consider the
reasons why homeless people are socially excluded. At this point I would like
to present you with the criteria that have been adopted by Polish
non-governmental organisations with regard to terminology.
Socially
excluded people are those who due to their life situation are not able to
fulfil their basic life needs on their own
and who
find themselves in a situation that leads to poverty
or that
prevents or limits their participation in professional, social and family life.
Analysing the definition, we may easily come to
a conclusion that the problem of homelessness is clearly incorporated in the
notion of social exclusion. What is more, we may say that the exclusion can
lead to homelessness.
Poland is a country with almost 40 million of
population. It is estimated that over 4 million of Polish citizens (9.5%) live
below the extreme poverty level (we could said the MINIMUM OF EXISTENCE), and
about 23 million (57%) below the social minimum. The data has been taken from
the reports by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
As far as the number of the homeless all over
Poland is concerned, only rough data can be provided. Having conducted a
socio-demographic research in the Pomerania province, which is one of 16 Polish
provinces, the Pomeranian Forum has estimated that the number of the homeless
in Poland may reach around 50 thousand. However, it has also been estimated
that further 50-70 thousand people can face the threat of homelessness.
As
regards the Pomerania province, the results of the research, which involved
counting of the homeless, show that there are at least 2,144 homeless people in
the province. The research entitled “The portrait of the homeless community”
was conducted within a few hours on the same day in all the districts and
counties of the Pomerania province.
The research involved
participation of more than 100 institutions and organisations.
Here are
the results of the research
POMERANIA
PROVINCE – 12 December 2001
The number
of the homeless people staying in
day centres
for the homeless 1038
The number
of the homeless people staying in
non-habitable
places 957
The number
of the homeless people staying in
hospitals,
medical care centres 39
The number
of the homeless people staying in
penitentiary
institutions 110
General 2144
The
data, and especially the number of the homeless living in non-habitable places,
reflects the large size of the social exclusion of the homeless.
The system of support for the homeless
Poland has adopted the Act on Social Welfare,
according to which every district is obliged to provide every of its citizens
with food, shelter and clothing.
In order to
fulfil their obligations resulting from the act, the districts should establish
Social Welfare Institutions - responsible for the realisation of the tasks
related to social welfare.
The
institutions may either establish their own centres for helping the homeless
or sign
contracts with non-governmental organisations that provide such services.
In the
Pomerania province, over 80% of the centres that support the homeless
(nightshelters, day centres) are run by non-governmental organisations.
Thus, in
80% of the cases the obligations of the districts with regard to the homeless
are fulfilled by non-governmental organisations.
This shows
to what extent the districts and the state have shifted the responsibility of
supporting the homeless onto non-governmental organisations.
In the Pomerania province there are about 40
centres that provide support to the homeless. They are run by over 30 different
organisations and institutions, which differ in their range of experience in
helping the homeless, their philosophies and methods of work.
The goal of
the Pomeranian Forum in Aid of Getting Out of Homelessness is to integrate
them, to form a coherent, yet not uniform, system of support for the homeless.
The Forum
initiates and co-ordinates the co-operation in establishing the standards,
models and methods of work with the people “without roof over their
heads”.
The results
of the co-operation are the standards that are applied by all the centres –
members of the Forum.
At the same
time, we implement the programmes and models for overcoming homelessness worked
out by the Forum.
For example
Methods of work with the homeless
The process of overcoming homelessness based on
the hierarchical systems of institutions for people who have good prospects of
overcoming homelessness
The system
is currently being implemented in a few large cities in the Pomerania province.
Long-established homelessness and
extra-institutional homelessness
Other forms of the activity of the Pomeranian
Forum in Aid of Getting Out of Homelessness include:
·
monthly
meetings of the Forum, substantive consultations, opinion-giving, organisation
of trainings, workshops, conferences and seminars;
·
publication
of periodicals on homelessness, e.g. “Homelessness with no fear”, “Information
Guide”, “The problems of homelessness in Poland”;
·
and
a widely understood co-operation with the media in this regard.
Finally, a short summary
In order to prevent social
exclusion of the homeless, to enable effective overcoming of homelessness, and
to limit the range of the problem - beside legal solutions, financial means and
the activity of particular centres and institutions - it is necessary to create
a coherent local systems of intersectoral co-operation,
We could say more create a system of support for the
homeless that would be common to all the centres in a given region. We now that
characteristic feature of homelessness is migration.
So such a solution would make it possible not only to
prevent homelessness but also to provide more professional and more effective
assistance that suits the local needs.
The system can be
established only by a representative group – an intersectoral coalition of
organisations helping the homeless – whose aim is to create a coherent and
reliable system of support.
Wishing you effective discussions,
I thank you for your attention