The Rio City Hall held a meeting last Wednesday, September 30, 09, to discuss issues related to the 2020 Homeless Population Census. The meeting, which was attended by representatives from the Municipal Secretariat for Social Assistance and Human Rights (SMASDH), the Strategic Council of the City of Rio de Janeiro and the Pereira Passos Institute (IPP), defined points about the methodology to be used and the script used in the application of the survey.
The census, which was scheduled to take place in March of this year, had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now scheduled to take place between October 26 and 29. Data collected from other surveys are not taken into account, due to the use of different methodologies, which prevents the information from being compared. In addition, previous censuses did not take into account certain peculiarities of the homeless population.
For SMASDH secretary Tia Ju, the execution of this project is an important step towards mapping the homeless population, which has greater social vulnerability.
“The Census will be an important tool to help in the planning and implementation of public policies for this population. This is a program that has no management mark, but rather aims to x-ray the real situation of the homeless population in the city of Rio de Janeiro,” says Tia Ju.
Questions about the impact of the novel coronavirus on homeless people were added to the questionnaire that was part of the initial plan. In addition, the focus is to collect information on age, race, gender, education, work and income, history of living on the streets, assessment of shelters, health and drug use, and access to and assessment of assistance services. The target audience for the mapping includes the homeless population and those served in shelters. In the case of children under 12 years of age, their guardians will be interviewed.
Conducting the Census faces some challenges, such as double counting and comprehensive coverage of the entire municipality in a short period of time. To overcome these situations, the main strategies adopted will be dividing the city into regions, three work shifts and cross-referencing information obtained through identification questions.
The field coordinators responsible for implementing the 2020 Homeless Population Census will be professionals from the Social Assistance and Human Rights Coordination Offices (CASDH), and the contracted company is Qualistest, responsible for carrying out a similar Census in the city of São Paulo in 2019.
SMASDH professionals receive honorable mention for their performance
A letter issued by the president-director of IPP, Col. Paulo Cesar Amendola, praised the performance of four professionals at the meeting held on September 30, 09, two of whom belonged to SMASDH: the coordinator of the Technical Coordination of Homeless Population Programs, linked to the Undersecretary of Social Protection, Nilceia Carneiro da Silva, and the cartographic engineer of the Information Management Coordination of SMASDH, João Gabriel Gomes Gonzaga.
The document highlights the presentation at the Strategic Council and highlights the suggested theme to be contextualized, in addition to the sharing of valuable information and experiences with the participants. According to the president-director of the IPP, the performance of the professionals highlights “high levels of knowledge and professionalism, in addition to the fruitful work developed daily for the benefit of the community”.
