Iran (IMNA) - Despite soaring rents and home prices, Isfahan has managed to significantly reduce homelessness over the past years through programs that combine prompt intervention with public and nonprofit services that include long-term follow-up.
The city this year committed toward ending rough sleeping. When temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing in the city, the Municipality of Isfahan opens more emergency shelters. Over the past year, the Isfahan’s social services department of the Municipality has increased the number of safe places to assist the homeless.
"Providing cultural and social services are indispensable part of the Municipality's responsibilities. The focus of the local government is more on cultural measures that target the expansion of urban spaces with the purpose of creating vitality in the society, " the Mayor of Isfahan Ali Ghasemzade said.
Referring to some social problems, he noted, "the Municipality is suffering from some negative social phenomena in the city; however, the administrative body is not responsible to tackle such issues according to the Municipal Law, thus there is no possibility to practice any intervention measure."
"The duty that is entrusted to the Municipality includes the provision of shelters for street people, for realization of which 40 billion tomans has been invested," the Mayor of Isfahan added regarding the phenomenon of rough sleeping and working children.
Emphasizing that many street children forced into work from an early age, Ghasemzade noted, "90% of working children come from immigrant families; the Municipality and other responsible institutions such as the Provincial Welfare Organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Basij Resistance Force are all set to provide economic and educational support to those working children who are in need of help. Therefore, I want citizens not to give money to the working children in the city so that supportive bodies could help them."
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