Cold emergency: the “Varese System” holds up

The icy weather of the last few days is not worrying Varese. The 51 beds available for homeless people are always full. In addition to these, there is the distribution of blankets by voluntary associations, such as the City Angels and the Angeli Urbani.

“The problem of homeless people has been dealt with by looking for concrete solutions,” said Roberto Molinari, the Councillor for Social Services. “We’ve identified the critical situations: for non-residents, we directed the cases to the social services of the place of residence, for the others, we set up rehabilitation projects. Since last year, we’ve had 12 beds on the Italian Red Cross premises in Via Durant.”

Thus, the solutions adopted are making it possible to deal with these days of intense cold with less anxiety: there are 25 beds available at the shelter in Via Maspero, 14 at Chalet Martinelli, and the 12 of the Italian Red Cross.

“There are still some people, who refuse all types of help,” Molinari concluded. “They are given blankets to cover themselves. These are people who don’t want to leave the train station. Then we have extreme cases, which we cannot deal with for safety reasons.”

Until the end of March, Varese Council’s assistance system will remain unchanged, regardless of how the weather changes.