2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 37A - Multi-Sector Homeless Population Support Council (§§ 1006 — 1006h) › § 1006 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning stated below:
(a) Shelter.— Day or night centers which provide the homeless with a place to stay the night, eat and keep up personal hygiene daily. It includes various modalities, such as emergency shelters, nontraditional safe havens, transitional shelters and centers for populations with special chronic conditions (HIV/AIDS), and for the mentally ill.
(b) Commission.— Work group created by Act 250 of August, 1998, the Commission for the Implementation of the Public Policy Regarding the Homeless, attached to the Department of the Family, to institute the public policy established by said Act, which is repealed under this chapter.
(c) Council.— Refers to the Multi-Sector Homeless Population Support Council (the Council), attached to the Department of the Family of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(d) Co-responsibility.— Refers to the conglomerate of visions and obligations shared by all social sectors to contribute in the process of reintegrating homeless persons into the community. Among the society sectors responsible for prevention and for attending to this issue are nongovernmental nonprofit and faith-based organizations, churches, the private sector, the various branches and agencies of the central government and the municipalities and their communities. Each sector shall take into account the particular and reciprocal obligations which they share with one another and bond with one another to coordinate and carry out actions with the common goal of contributing to eradicating homelessness.
(e) Emergency.— Means any situation which places a homeless person at an imminent risk in terms of his/her safety or health, his/her bodily, mental or emotional integrity, or his/her social well-being if no immediate action is taken to address the issue in question, while respecting his/her freedom of choice.
(f) HMIS (Homeless Management Information System).— Electronic managerial data collecting system which seeks to integrate and establish the effectiveness of the rendering of services with federal funding under the “McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act”. All organizations, whether public or private, receiving funding under this chapter, shall collect and maintain information regarding their operations in electronic format. It consists of an electronic information network for collecting data, deriving statistical information, and establishing inter-organizational communication.
(g) Abuse.— Means any intentional act or omission incurred when physically assaulting, abducting, persecuting, financially exploiting, committing hate crimes, inflicting abuse on account of social condition, verbally abusing with derogatory language, verbally abusing with insults or disparaging homeless persons so as to undermine their bodily, mental and/or emotional integrity.
(h) Institutional abuse.— Means any act or omission incurred by a service provider or by any employee or official of a public or a private institution which offers services to the homeless population, which causes recipients of these services to be abused.
(i) Municipal Liaison Official for Interagency Homeless Assistance.— An employee designated by the municipality for the coordination of all services and benefits to be provided to the homeless in their municipality by the government agencies in conjunction with the Multi-sector Homeless Population Support Council.
(j) Council Office.— The Homeless Population Service Program Liaison and Coordination Office (the Office) at the state level, which is responsible for the operational and programmatic affairs of the Council.
(k) Nongovernmental organizations [(NGOs)].— Means those nonprofit and faith-based organizations, projects, community outreach centers, or centers attached to university institutions, churches, the private business sector, without being limited to nonprofit and faith-based organizations not belonging to the Government which provide services to the homeless population in different situations.
(l) Homeless persons or homeless population.— Also commonly known as street dwellers, includes all persons who: (1) do not have (a) the fixed, regular or adequate home in which to live or stay at night; or (2) whose home is: (a) publicly or privately supervised housing designed to provide emergency or transitory shelter, including those institutions devoted to providing transitory shelter for persons with mental health conditions or other special-need groups and who originally live on the streets; (b) an institution which provides temporary shelter to those individuals on the process of being de-institutionalized; (c) a public or private place not designed and not suitable for human habitation or ordinarily used for human beings; (d) a room, including the living room, of a private residence, to be used on a temporary basis as a shelter, an made available as a charitable act, on the condition that said use is to be short-termed and may be terminated at any time, with or without prior notice.
The following are included within the top priority groups: (a) homeless families, particularly single mothers with children; (b) homeless solo men and women; (c) homeless persons with mental health and/or substance abuse conditions as defined by SAMHSA; (d) homeless persons suffering from HIV/AIDS; (e) domestic abuse victims and survivors; and (f) homeless elderly persons. This definition shall also include all persons falling under the definition of the terms “homeless”, “homeless individual”, or “homeless person” of the Public Law known as the “Stewart B. McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act”, as amended. The definition of homeless person under this chapter includes those persons deemed to be “chronically” or “recurrently” homeless, defined as “an unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition who has been homeless continuously for a one (1)-year term or more, or who has experienced four (4) episodes of homelessness or more over the past three (3) years”. A disabling condition is defined as “a diagnosable substance abuse disorder, severe mental health conditions, developmental disabilities, or a chronic physical disabling condition or illness, including the concurrence of two or more of these conditions”.
(m) Council President.— To be elected by Council members.
(n) Advocate for the Patients.— The person who directs the Office of the Advocate for Patients Beneficiaries of the Health Reform who shall enforce the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities of the Patient established by §§ 3041 et seq. of Title 24.
(o) Social protection services.— Means specialized services that seek safety for and the well-being of the homeless population and the prevention of risks of abuse or institutional abuse.
(p) Interagency services.— Refers to the services offered by the various government agencies, in a coordinated manner, as part of a continuous care system, to enable the maximization of resources and provide quality services to homeless persons in different situations.
(q) Multi-sector services.— Refers to the services offered by the Government and the various NGOs, the private sector, faith-based organizations, banking institutions, the academia, etc., in a coordinated manner, as part of a continuous care system, to enable the maximization of resources and to provide quality services to homeless persons in different situations.
History —Sept. 27, 2007, No. 130, § 2; Dec. 10, 2010, No. 191, §§ 1, 2.