Q COSTA RICA — The number of people living on the streets of Costa Rica’s capital city, San José, has led mayor Diego Miranda to request urgent intervention from the government of Laura Fernández.
Miranda estimates that approximately 2,300 people are currently homeless in the city, a figure that, he warns, reflects a growing national problem.
Miranda sent a letter to the President asking the Executive Branch to assume a leadership role and coordinate the institutions responsible for serving this population.
“I am writing this letter on behalf of more than a million people who live, work, and travel through the capital,” the mayor states at the beginning of the document.
The mayor uses the number of homeless people to illustrate the scale of the problem and draws a comparison with the community where the president grew up.
“And consider that number for a moment, Ms. Laura. Today, there are more people sleeping on the sidewalks of San José every night than there are inhabitants in the community of San Rafael de Esparza, the district where you grew up,” Miranda stated.
According to the mayor, the number of people currently living on the streets demonstrates that the country faces a problem it has failed to resolve in recent years.
“This is the result of a failed policy. Socially, economically, and culturally, we are regressing,” Miranda states in the letter sent to the President.
San José Bears the Cost of Care
The Municipality of San José maintains that the growth of the homeless population has also generated increasing pressure on municipal services and various spaces in the capital.
According to the local government, the permanent presence of homeless people is linked to the occupation of public spaces, pollution, deterioration and invasion of properties, negative impact on businesses, and the loss of spaces considered safe for families.
The Municipality also points to the presence of structures related to illicit activities in some parts of the city.
Faced with this situation, the local government asserts that it allocates more than ¢2 billion colones each year to services related to assisting this population.
Among the actions implemented are the availability of 102 overnight shelters, in addition to collaborative work with social organizations that provide food, access to restrooms, and medical care.
These measures are complemented by the ongoing work of municipal crews and interventions by the Municipal Police in areas where illicit activities are detected.
However, Miranda believes that these actions are insufficient to address a phenomenon that transcends the jurisdiction of a single municipality.
The mayor’s position is that addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness must be tackled as a national policy through the coordinated participation of institutions responsible for social services, health, security, and other related areas.
Three Proposals
In his letter, Miranda proposes three concrete actions that, according to the Municipality, would allow progress toward a coordinated response.
The first consists of creating a working group comprised of all the institutions responsible for addressing the problem.
The proposal seeks to define tasks, responsibilities, and budgets under a comprehensive care model. The local government asserts that it already has a proposal to implement this mechanism.
The second initiative is directed at the Legislative Assembly. The mayor proposes promoting a bill that would provide public institutions with tools they currently lack to address the problem.
Miranda states that he has already held talks with representatives of the three largest legislative blocs and that there is consensus on the need to move forward with legislation related to this situation.
The third proposal calls for establishing a permanent monitoring mechanism through the Social Council, linked to the Presidency, with the objective of ensuring that the agreements reached between the institutions are translated into concrete and sustained actions.
The initiative is not limited to the letter sent by the mayor.
As part of the campaign, Miranda, accompanied by the first deputy mayor, Yariela Quirós, and the second deputy mayor, Fernando Venga, toured various locations in San José to collect signatures from citizens who support the request addressed to President Fernández.
The Municipality’s intention is for the document to reach Casa Presidencial along with the signatures of residents of the capital who believe the situation requires urgent government intervention.
The mayor maintains that the initiative’s objective is not to generate a political dispute, but rather to get national institutions directly involved.
“I am writing to you respectfully, but also urgently. I am not doing so on behalf of political interests or to generate headlines. I am doing so on behalf of thousands of Costa Ricans who feel they can no longer wait,” Miranda states.
The proposal stems from a premise: San José cannot continue to bear the brunt of a problem that, due to its scale, requires a national response, practically alone.