2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 37A - Multi-Sector Homeless Population Support Council (§§ 1006 — 1006h) › § 1006g - Strategic plans to have accessible and proper housing available for the homeless

The Council and the Municipal Liaison Official for Interagency Homeless Assistance shall integrate the plans existing in Puerto Rico into a single document and facilitate the implementation thereof, emphasizing in the following areas, but not limited to the following areas:
(a) Prevention.—
(1) Designing and carrying out prevention campaigns to help to raise awareness and to sensitize the general citizenry about the situation of homeless persons.
(2) Educating our children and youths on sensitive issues, to help prevent situations which lead to homelessness.
(3) Motivating the general community through campaigns, so that all sectors take on a proactive role and show solidarity in seeking solutions for the situations affecting homeless persons.
(4) Coordinating services for persons or families that are at risk of losing their home, including materials to repair and rehabilitate inadequate housing units, financial assistance, training and job opportunity services, health services, social support in situations that constitute a personal and/or family emergency, and legal advice.
(b) Sensitization and raising awareness.—
(1) Educating all service sectors and the general community, in order to sensitize them as to the fair treatment to be accorded to this population, so as to prevent abuse and institutional abuse.
(2) Offering and ensuring that homeless persons shall be treated humanely, fairly, respectfully, exercising tolerance and as equals, while guaranteeing protection and equality and recognizing their rights.
(3) Providing orientation to communities about discriminatory practices in treating homeless persons.
(4) Promoting models for treatment and service protocols in attention to the needs of homeless persons from a sensitive, salubrious and nonpunitive perspective, upholding the dignity of human beings.
(c) Access to government services.—
(1) Ensuring that homeless persons receive, as would any person residing in Puerto Rico, all government services offered for which they qualify without restriction as to their access to any government, Commonwealth or municipal aid or service, on account of not having a physical address.
(2) Establishing programs to train the personnel that is to work with this population, so as to enable this personnel to offer efficient and effective services, while treating homeless persons respectfully and responsibly.
(3) Planning counseling, orientation, referral and support services for homeless persons.
(4) Developing and implementing multi-sector collaboration processes and bridge the ties and enter into co-responsibility agreements with all sectors.
(d) Human and health services.—
(1) Establishing a plan of action that provides different solutions and alternatives for the health conditions afflicting homeless persons, such as:
(A) Access to public restrooms and toilet facilities in which the basic services for personal hygiene are provided.
(B) Access to services provided by social workers and human behavior professionals; assistance and follow-up on homeless persons, with special emphasis on the affective area, self-esteem, scale of values, and attitudes, among others.
(C) Access to specialized services for homeless persons who exhibit conditions associated with substance and/or alcohol abuse, and/or mental health conditions.
(D) Access to health clinics or services for the early detention of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.
(E) Access to medical services or to orientation as required for admission into programs for rehabilitation from conditions associated with substance abuse.
(F) Access to centers providing first aid, laboratory and X-ray services, and distribution of prescribed medications.
(G) Access to daytime centers to afford rest to homeless persons whose health requires that they stay in bed, including persons with HIV/AIDS who are not in the terminal phase.
(H) Expeditious access to the Government health plan, as would be available to any medically indigent person.
(I) The implementation and use of ambulatory healthy clinics which provide multiple services, in order for homeless persons to have easier access to these services.
(2) Propitiating programs to address these issues or using existing resources to fully incorporate into its functions, actions to duly address the issues of homeless persons. Involving private, semipublic, nonprofit community and faith-based entities in these efforts.
(3) Guaranteeing that health services shall be obtained voluntarily, respecting the constitutional right of this population to receive these services with dignity and freedom. The need for these services shall not entail in any way a deprivation of the right to free determination of homeless persons, pursuant to constitutional protections afforded even to recurrently homeless persons.
(e) Housing.—
(1) Promoting the development of different housing solutions, alternatives and modalities, geared toward tackling the problem posed by the lack of housing for homeless persons, projecting the development of mixed and integrative communities, where citizens from all social and financial statuses shall live, thus preventing the creation of marginalized urban sections.
(2) Identifying vacant and abandoned buildings in the municipalities, to be used for the development of affordable housing modalities, taking into consideration the special needs and conditions of homeless persons.
(3) Including into the Affordable Housing Plan of Action, so that the same contains the following housing modalities or alternatives:
(A) Emergency shelter.— These shelters, be they daytime or nighttime centers, shall enable homeless persons to spend the night, eat and upkeep their daily hygiene, for a maximum term of six months.
(B) Transitory housing.— These housing units shall consist of rooms, apartments or houses provided on a temporary basis, up to a maximum of twenty-four (24) months for those who wish and are ready to live in and upkeep a home independently.
(C) Permanent housing.— Providing public or private housing units on a permanent basis to homeless persons.
(D) Permanent housing with support services.— Permanent housing which offers at its facilities, those support services needed to address the special needs of homeless persons who require support and/or supervision in order to effectively live independently.
(4) Reviewing the norms and regulations that establish the requirements to gain access to housing services.
(f) Job opportunities and financial income.—
(1) Implementing a plan of action that provides different alternatives for the problem posed by joblessness or the lack of income of homeless persons, so that they may achieve financial stability, be able to upkeep their home and be self-sufficient. To wit:
(A) The development of community employment and self-employment programs and assist them in marketing and distributing their products.
(B) The development of training courses that allow skill-building for competitive jobs which yield a financial income higher than the minimum wage and which are in demand on the Island.
(C) The development of programs which allow for the fullest development of the vocational skills and abilities of homeless persons.
(D) Providing orientation to homeless persons who wish to finish their studies and later assist them with referrals and help them so that they may achieve the level of education they want, as a prelude to paid employment to enable them to become self-sufficient.
(E) The design and implementation of strategies that allow for handling the situation created by the existence of a criminal history at the time of gaining access to educational, training, entrepreneurial development, and employment programs, as well as social welfare and housing programs, among others.
History —Sept. 27, 2007, No. 130, § 9, renumbered as § 11 by § 11 and amended by § 9 on Dec. 10, 2010, No. 191; renumbered as § 12 on Feb. 18, 2011, No. 8, § 2.