Menhelya 2010

Shelter Foundation Budapest (Hungary) Nightshelter for homeless men (48 beds) Good evening! How are you today? It's all right. Good evening! What a comfortable room you have... Do you often go out day time? Yes, I usually go to the shop and here and there. Do you stay here in the neighbourhood, or go further, in the city centre as well? Yes, but I come back every time when it is time to eat lunch or supper. How long have you been living here? Since 1971. I mean, 2001. Because the room where we story luggage was overcrowded, we decided the open a new one. This one is a bit bigger. Homeless people can store their things here. This one is a bit bigger. Homeless people can store their things here. Are there more clients in the winter time? It is the same. Night shelter at 6 PM. The opening of the door. Good evening. "kisdihand" your servant! Good Moning! The Number 13. (bed), it is ok? That's right. What is the matter? What is inside? They are four. I am going to let them in, and they will have to sleep on matresses on the floor. You look great! I don't want to be captured! You can see three social workers at work here. They are so called advisors. They try to help users solve their personal problems. We have been using a new software for two years now, which has made our work easier. Most cases that we deal with are about replacing lost papers. Often people come here to ask for help in claiming benefits. If it is not too complicated to find a solution, we do everything right here. There are also some direct services here that are paid for by the foundtaion. For exremple, people can get a voucher for medicine and glasses. How much space can one person use? There is space for two packages on one shelf for one man. There is no rule what a bag must be like. It can be a plastic rubbish bag as well. Do you ever have a problem with food being put in the bag, that then goes bad? I always tell people not to put food in their bags! It has only happened once in the nine years that I have been here. They don't usually do it. Sometime they leave dry food, like noodles, but it is no problem. The food they have gets eaten, not stored. What are you doing now "Tshurika"? I register data of the vendors of the street newspaper "Fedél Nélkül". I also put the names of the people who come to the day centre in the computer. I AM WORKING And what is she doing over there? She is making a prmission for selling the news for vendor. What kind of work do you do here? I normally do what the second girl does now: I give permits to vendors of the street paper. So you replace the the girls.Today especially you look like a girl, with your freshly shaved chin, don't you? Have you ever been here, in Prater street? Not yet. So we will see it, OK? Who comes in here? Is it mostly homeless people from shelters or rough sleepers? I see, mixed. How many people come in during the day? 160-180 person on a day. That is quite a lot, isn't it? And how many people are there in the staff? Let's see, one, two.. Six, we are six in the staff. Six social workers. And additional two helper, they prepared the food. And they orgenaized the loundry. We give 4 tickets for laundry in a day because we only have two washing machines, and there must be enough time for the clothes to dry. People cannot go out with in wet clothes. It means that they have to wash their own clothes, and the staff person is only standing by? Is it allowed in the waiting time to have a shower? Yes, it is possible. It is another place to receive advice The office is on the first floor. These are the closed dossiers. All of them are about health insurance or a claim for pension. 24 hour hotline Who calls your hotline most often? Are they normal citizens? 70 of the calls come from normal people, so not directly from the homeless or the police. A third of the calls come from the police or the ambulance, or social services. Social services do not usually report that someone is sleeping on the street, they ask for information about other services. Tell me someting about the staff. How many are you together in the team? Four full-time and four half-time workers. Someone always has to be here and answer the phone. There is no way to become sick or something. We organise also a supported rent scheme that can accommodate couples during in winter time. This is a very popular project. There are not too many places where couples have the opportunity to live together. Within a few weeks of the start, the project has filled up. We have enlarged the project severaé times, but there are never enough places to use. There is a voucher that makes it possible to rent a room in the first weeks for as little 1.3 Euro per person a day. After half a year, the rent reaches the full price. Crisis car The child is 14 months old. Only 14 months old? Yeah, one year and two months. The mother is at the end of her next pregnancy. She will give birth to the next child in a month. We have agreed with them that we would come back. They have a lot of things missing from their life... She has no health card, her partner has no shoes...