Blogrel: Finally, a Homeless Shelter in Yerevan

February 11, 2005

Finally, a Homeless Shelter in Yerevan

Well, I'm very glad to see this news as reported by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's excellent Armenian service. It is planned that a shelter for the homeless will be opened in Yerevan in the future. Of course, this has been spoken about for a long time but soon, it will be covered by legislation. Now, the hardest part will be finding the financial resources for the shelter and also, ensuring that the article in the draft law when it is passed actually functions.

Vartanian said the shelters will house not only individuals that have nowhere to live but also victims of domestic violence. He did not elaborate on time frames and financial details of the scheme, saying only that it stems from a draft law on social support which the government will submit to parliament this month.
Homelessness is a relatively new but increasingly visible phenomenon in Armenia and Yerevan in particular. Seeing people scavenging for food or sleeping on the street in the city center was hardly possible just a few years. The Armenian government, including Vartanian's ministry, as well as international relief organizations present in Armenia have not dealt with the problem until now.

For anyone interested in downloading a presentation to raise awareness of the problem of homelessness in Armenia (available in Mac and PC versions) please access the links on the front page of my web site at: http://www.oneworld.am. For the complete report, see Government To Open First Shelter For Armenia's Homeless on the ArmeniaLiberty.org site.

Posted by Onnik on February 11, 2005 | TrackBack | Email to a friend

Comments

I wonder if they'll try for any US partner funding.

God, I hope that they do this right.

Posted by: Katy at February 11, 2005 07:53 AM

I hope that they do it soon...

Both Edik and I consider that it there is the need for some emergency intervention now. Although I'm glad that such an initiative is underway (and btw: the draft law refers to 60 days temporary accomodation which is quite good for the winter if there are enough beds), it's still winter here now and I wonder how many others are in need of assistance now and not 1-2 years in the future.

And of course, there is another issue that is common in the West with shelters and that is, some people don't like shelters that accomodate such a broad range of people and there are other issues. For example, a woman needing refuge from domestic violence sharing temporary accomodation with someone who has been living on the streets? Still, we can but hope.

Probably, what is really needed is a reputable international organization to establish the services at the shelter first (MSF would be ideal given their experience with the homeless in Moscow) before handing it over to the Ministry of Social Security and / or local NGOs because the problems associated with homelessness (health, psychological etc) are complex.

The Government will need some real assistance in this area although I'm glad to hear that MSF-France will be expanding their Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis program to encompass normal cases of tuberculosis, for example, among the homeless.

Posted by: Onnik Krikorian at February 11, 2005 08:02 AM

Great points Onnik. I wonder if MSF would be willing to send over some trainers to help set it up properly. I was also thinking about the issues surrounding housing domestic violence victims with the homeless population.

Are they also going to offer drug rehabilitation? Mental health treatment?

I wish there was some way that I could get involved.

Posted by: Katy at February 11, 2005 10:02 AM

Onnik, have you worked with Ministry of Labor & Social Issues on the homeless issue, or is this a positive example of the Armenian government responding to public feedback?

Posted by: Hovakim at February 11, 2005 01:29 PM

Well, there's a number of issues here, the first being that usually, homelessness is dealt with by the local municipality and not the Ministry of Social Security. The second and perhaps just as important issue is that there are already a number of provisions under Armenian law that should relate to the homeless and other vulnerable groups such as access to free health care which do not function because of the system of informal payments in the health care sector (which affects almost everyone) and the over reliance on soviet-era requirements to have official documents for almost everything, and which also generally involve paying a bribe.

However, in this case, I would imagine that there was international pressure to bring Armenian legislation into conformity with Council of Europe requirements and that like most new laws, it was drawn up with the assistance of foreign specialists and international organizations. The media coverage on the issue, I think, was most succesful in bringing the Government to make a declaration on the issue although Edik did meet with Lise Grande, Residential Representative of the United Nations in Armenia, to brief her on the issue. Grande promised to raise the issue personally with the Government.

Probably, I'm not so concerned Vartanyan's declaration because we all know that any politican is able to make such statements. The point is that when the law is passed that it works, that finance from the state budget is there (or from international donor organizations) and that any problems with the system when it emerges are covered by the media and local NGOs who then pushe, along with the rest of society, to ensure that the law evolves and any wrinkles are ironed out.

That said, of course, the statement is positive and I think that the media has had and will continue to have a positive role to play in ensuring that the article in the law doesn't merely remain on paper.

Posted by: Onnik Krikorian at February 11, 2005 02:25 PM

News just in. Now the President can be seen talking about homelessness in Yerevan as was the case this morning in a news report.

It's interesting. While the majority of responses from the Diaspora were positive to Hetq's work on the matter, there were three individuals (including one who comments on this site) who rationalized the problem while not understanding that yes, while homelessness does exist everywhere there are usually shelters, government programs and organizations working with the problem.

Why this is interesting is that now that the President as well as the Minister of Social Security has spoken about the problem, journalists presumably won't be attacked for dealing with such an issue.

In fact, this is the way it should work. The media reports on a problem, society reacts and the government acts. That's how it is in other countries and that's how it should be here. For example, I know nobody in England who displays the same logic when it comes to the British Government. Indeed, for the British Government of ANY political color to function, it NEEDS media coverage of problems that need to be addressed, where government policy is not working etc. If the government doesn't satisfy the demands of society it is then voted out of office in the next elections.

If we didn't have that, god...

Yet, some of us throw all sense of logic out of the window when it comes to Armenia, demanding that journalists only focus on the good. Well, we saw AIM do that (although I'd argue that their "good" wasn't as "good" as they made out), and it amounted to nothing. No wonder their circulation was so low. There are some positive things that have happened in Armenia (and perhaps this is even one of them) but basically, no country -- especially one like Armenia -- can progress unless failures and new problems are identified.

Once they are, society and the government generally address them.

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February 11, 2005

Finally, a Homeless Shelter in Yerevan