Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, November 17 2019 – In view of the decrease in temperatures and the approach of winter, the Municipality of Milan will activate from tomorrow, Monday 18 November, the measures of the so-called Cold Plan which, until the end of March, provides for the expansion of the beds normally available in Centers for homeless adults.
 
Starting tomorrow therefore, the opening hours of the Casc, Central Station Help Centre, will be extended, which from this year will welcome people in the new space in via Sammartini 120 and which will remain open from 9am to 13pm and from 14pm to 21pm from Monday on Fridays and from 12pm to 21pm on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. At the same times, by calling 02 884 47647 you can request information on services, residential facilities, mobile units, day centres, canteens and public showers. The staff at via Sammartini 120 will also be strengthened with the inclusion of professional figures with specific skills: psychologists, linguistic mediators, social workers, educators, legal consultants. Outside the Help Centre, the camper of the Italian Volunteer Doctors and the new camper of the "Stop TB" Association will be active and, in collaboration with Ats, they will carry out health screenings before entering the facilities.
 
The residential reception system for homeless people has changed its face: it has expanded and qualified. The permanent structures active all day and all year round will be available for 300 beds for social inclusion projects and for continuous hospitality until December 2021. The permanent beds are divided as follows: 200 places in the municipal structure in via Aldini, entrusted with management through a public procedure to Fondazione Progetto Arca, 60 places in the affiliated “Casa Rossa” facility in Corso Lodi managed by Fondazione Fratelli di San Francesco (in collaboration with Arcadia, Angels Service and Insieme si pubo), 40 placed in the Fondazione Progetto Arca structure in via Fantoli. Furthermore, experiments with housing first, housing led and micro communities continue for a total of a further 130 beds. Finally, in via Mambretti there are places for homeless people with chronic pathologies, disabilities or addiction problems and those leaving the hospital health system.
 
For the Cold Plan, however, the number of low-threshold night-only beds will progressively increase. Reception at Casa Jannacci in via Ortles will be strengthened, with the addition of over 100 temporary places more than the 500 already active. Other structures (both owned by the Administration and made available by Third Sector bodies) will be opened gradually according to needs until reaching a total capacity of approximately 2.700 beds. 
 
“The effort that the Municipality makes to support the weakest - declares the councilor for social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti - has more than doubled in the space of a few years, resulting in the implementation of a system of services and opportunities that has no equal in Italy. On winter nights, those who don't have a home know they can find a place in the local structures. A commitment for which we want to say thank you to a city that never holds back and that does its part every day, convinced that welcoming the most vulnerable makes the entire city stronger".
 
Among the services for the homeless, the single number 24 24 7 is active 7 hours a day, 02 days a week, to report the presence of people in difficulty sleeping on the streets.
 
During the evening hours the Reporting Service managed by the Milanese Committee of the Red Cross and by Fondazione Progetto Arca and coordinated by the Central Station Help Centre, will collect the needs, monitor the presence of homeless people and coordinate the service of the 19 Third Sector associations that provide night Mobile Units (ordinary and specialist) are available to patrol the city every night. This year too, they will have around 15 beds available at the Piccolo Rifugio reserved for homeless people who are identified at night by the mobile units and convinced to accept hospitalization in the centers and who will therefore be able to spend the night in one of the places reserved for emergencies. The following day, through the Casc, they will be able to check the accommodation possibilities.