Problems of homeless people discussed in Kazan

A news conference has today been held at the Tatarstan agency for print and mass communications Tatmedia, dedicated to helping unemployed and homeless people. The Tatarstan Human Rights Commissioner Rasheet Vagizov, officials from the Labour, Employment and Social Security Ministry, Interior Ministry and Health Ministry answered questions from journalists.

Rasheet Vagizov noted that homeless people faced a severe problem of unemployment, medical service, pension provision, benefit payment and implementing other civil rights. Homelessness as a social phenomena poses a threat to society’s safety and welfare, enhanced the official.

“It is commonly known that the homeless are a medium breeding crime. Every third person undergoing rehabilitation in social adaptation centres for people with no fixed adobe and occupation has had prior convictions,” said the human rights commissioner. “On the other hand, homeless people are often made victims of criminal offence. For example, there are quite a few former orphans among the homeless. The reasons are that after graduation, they are on the one hand not provided housing they are legitimately entitled to, while on the other, after being taken care of by the state for 18 years, they enter adult life practically unprepared and lose their residences for various reasons, including through criminal offence."

Answering the question from Tatar-inform, news conference participants noted that providing homes to orphans was supervised by the Tatarstan Education and Science Ministry, as well as Construction Ministry.

Insufficient development of the social infrastructure is one of the worst problems as well. The public system of social security in Tatarstan has three centres of social adaptation for people with no fixed abode, designed for 125 beds, in Nizhnekamsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and Kazan.