UPDATE : Budapest Municipal Assembly has just accepted the bill penalizing the homeless for staying on public areas. - *16:20. 14. Nov.2013
Government of Hungary proceed in criminalization of staying on public places.
The bill that should be voted today, on the 14th November 2013, says that it is illegal to stay permanently on any site of the World's Heritage in Hungary, any sidewalk, the underpasses and areas designated by the municipalities .
The complete list is coming soon. Policemen are charged to call upon leaving illegal street inhabitants and for them refusing to move away can end in jail. Being a backslider (being caught 3 times) ends the same.
But Activists of the organization The City is for All (A Város Mindenkié) surrounded the building of the Municipal Assembly then got into the floor too to hinder the adoption of that bill which seeks to define a list of misdemeanours in public spaces which would end up penalizing the homeless, as they say: the official persecution of homeless people. The assembly has been suspended by the Mayor of Budapest as per the latest news. Previously, in September they already sent an open letter to the minister of the interior demanding the withdrawal of the bill.
Minister of Interior, Sándor Pintér stated today that if needed the present 10 thousand places in the homeless shelters can be doubled, but no underpass can be opened for homeless people staying- according to the Hungarian news agency.
The news agency let us also know that Zala county seems to be the eminent in homeless care, as in the last 15 years nobody froze to death. However the day shelter for 20 is regularly used by 30-40 people. The night shelter for 50 people is also overcharged.
Officially there are 10-11 thousand homeless people in Hungary (9000 in Budapest for 7000 places). Their number jumped in 1993, in 2005 and 2010. In the last twenty years it has been doubled. There is also a migration from east to west of people without a place for sleep.
After meeting with with Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós, Deputy State Secretary Erika Zupcsán from the Ministry of Human Resources, Government Commissioner Imre Pesti, Chief of Police Károly Papp and Vice-President of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Miklós Vecsei, it has been announced that “In order to provide proper winter care, homeless shelters will receive an extra HUF 372.9 million in funding” - the Government website - www.kormany.hu - wrote on the 11th November, a record clod day, that is the fourth already ion 2013.
* MTI, Hungarian news agency