Since opening in December, the new Ibiza Municipal Shelter Service (SAM)Â in the building of the old shelter located in calle de Vicent Serra i Orvay, has been continuously providing shelter for homeless people. The new homeless shelter has 15 places, the same as the old center on calle Carlos III, and they are currently all occupied, as confirmed by the City Council.
This service is aimed at homeless people with a medium and high profile who, for various reasons, have lost their home. The shelter staff helps the people living in the shelter with all kinds of formalities and guides them to help them reintegrate into society.
Users of the municipal shelter must be directly referred by the basic community social services and must comply with a previously agreed work plan, with objectives to be reached within a given time. They are also obliged to observe certain rules of conduct and to respect the timetable. Entrance to the SAM is on a first-come, first-served basis, except if there are factors of some kind that require someone to be given priority.
Vertical structure
In this new homeless shelter it has been possible to improve the quality of service and it is also very spacious, with 1,979 square meters of floor space, divided into a ground floor and three upper floors. The main difference with the previous center is that its infrastructure is vertical, which makes it possible to organize stays by services.
On the ground floor there is a place for reception and community services: the laundry with industrial washer and dryer, a cloakroom with modular shelving, toilets and the reception, where personalized attention is offered. This space operates during the day and provides users with individualized attention.
The second floor has a day center, a kitchen and a dining room for 34 people, where workshops are given and where organizational skills are worked on. There is also a room where users can watch television and space for monitors, as well as a patio.
On the third and fourth floors are the bedrooms. In total there are eight rooms, which currently serve 15 users. Seven of them are double rooms and the other one is for people with functional diversity. Each room is equipped with single beds, wardrobes and a small table.
In addition, the entire building is connected with an elevator, which improves accessibility, an emergency staircase and another staircase for regular use.
At first, the City Council’s announcement of the new location of the Vila Reception Center was rejected by the residents of the area, who even created an association, Avicen, whose main objective was to “improve the quality” of the neighborhood, as explained by its president, José Vicente Riera.
Rejection of the homeless shelter by the neighbors
The neighborhood association repeatedly showed its distrust and fear that this homeless center would end up receiving troublesome users, who could disturb the coexistence in the neighborhood, despite the promises made by the City Council. The association insisted on raising their demands “in a peaceful way”, through “dialogue” and with the presentation of “alternatives” for an infrastructure whose necessity they did not dispute, but they did propose different alternative locations, among which were Gorg or the area of Can Misses.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.