The shelter will operate daily until March 20, 2026, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., in the former Student House, owned by Caritas Diocesana de Beja.
A statement from the Beja City Council detailed that the shelter’s opening follows an evaluation of risks and warnings issued by the Municipal Civil Protection Service, considering the adverse weather conditions typical at this time of year.
The municipality emphasized that the shelter, a direct municipal responsibility in close cooperation with the partners of the Homeless Planning and Intervention Group (NPISA), aims primarily to ensure the safety, well-being, and dignity of people who, for various reasons, find themselves without a safe place to sleep.
In this context, “street teams, in an empathetic, preventive, and proactive approach, ensure the identification and referencing of homeless individuals, guaranteeing that all receive the appropriate support,” the statement reads.
The Beja City Council also noted that the shelter will “provide essential goods and services.”
“Immediate basic needs, such as food, hygiene, and safe rest, will be met with the presence of private security in coordination with the PSP,” it stated.
Additionally, “this integrated response aims to create a bridge to more stable solutions, promoting referencing to reception solutions managed or protocolled with Social Security at the national level, always within an inclusion and life reconstruction logic,” concluded the city council.
