Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Consistent with the mission of serving the most vulnerable in our community, through inter-institutional tours that find and offer assistance to the homeless, the Municipal DIF System of Puerto Vallarta is preparing a temporary shelter that will provide comprehensive services and care to people living on the streets.
The creation of the temporary shelter, which aims to help improve the living conditions of homeless people, is advancing by instruction of DIF president, María de Jesús López Delgado, according to the director of the institution, Roberto Ramos Vázquez.
“For the good of all,” he said, “the System for the Comprehensive Development of the Family attends to indigence as part of its sensitive work for the regeneration of the social fabric of Puerto Vallarta. However,” Ramos Vázquez explained, “it is a shared responsibility in which, in addition to DIF, the three levels of government, civil, and organized society must also be involved since it is the lack of interest on the part of other institutions and governments that intensified the social problem in recent years.”
The temporary shelter that the institution is preparing will provide facilities where homeless people can spend the night and clean up. They will also be able to improve their health and nutrition conditions, and access various workshops that can help them get out of the situation they are going through. “In this space we will have psychologists, doctors and health personnel, which will improve their living conditions,” explained Ramos Vázquez.
Faced with the rainy season, the director expressed concern for the homeless, specifying that the Municipal DIF tours different neighborhoods to identify people in need and invite them to spend the night or day in the shelter, where they can get comprehensive care that will allow them to transform their situation. “[Our aim] is to do justice to this sector. The Covid-19 pandemic, economic problems, and domestic violence are just some of the factors that caused people to live on the streets,” he said.
He added that work is being done to dignify the public service and for the first time in the history of the institution, and with the spirit of service that characterizes the present administration, the Organic Statute of the Municipal DIF System of Puerto Vallarta was modified to include attention to people in street situations as part of the catalog of vulnerable sectors and priority attention. “It is essential because work must be done not only in speech, but also within the regulations, so that there is a support and antecedent.”
