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In an interview with Contilnet, on Monday (26), Councilman André Kamai (PT) was asked about a theme that has generated controversy in Rio Branco: the change of the Pop Center-which serves homeless people and worked previously in the city center-to the Castello Branco neighborhood, in Baixada da Sobral.
Kamai understands that the situation was caused by the management of Mayor Tião Bocalom.
“This situation did not fall like a bomb on the mayor’s lap. It was armed by management, which kept the pop center, throughout the previous management, in a precarious place, with very few conditions of care, and did not pay attention to the policy aimed at homeless people, precisely when this population has been growing in Rio Branco. This population does not exist because of the pop center;
The councilman stated that Rio Branco City Hall does not have a food distribution policy for the homeless population.
Kamai argues that Rio Branco has at least four units of Pop Center/Photo: Reproduction
“The street population has the pop center as a reference. It is important to say that there is a process of marginalization of this public policy. The pop center can not be a place where food is distributed. Then people ask why it is there: because the city does not have a food distribution policy. It turned out that the pop center had to welcome this action,” he said.
Kamai said Rio Branco needs to have at least four Pop Center units working and argues that one of them remains in the city center.
“Today, our largest concentration of homeless people is in the city center. And in my opinion, the pop center should be where people are, and not people go where the center is. We need to have a pop center in the city center. We have a pop center in Rio Branco, when we should have a pop center in that region? Pop in the center and other areas where there is the highest concentration of people.
According to the councilman, the problem of downtown Rio Branco is not the Pop Center or the homeless people, but the abandonment of the place by the public power.
“The movement in Castello Branco is not the first. There was the movement in the city center, the traders. The problem of the city center is not the people in the street situation; the problem is the fragile economy and the abandonment of the center by the government. They were abandoned, because there are no more actions that move these places, ”he said.
“This problem did not arise out of nowhere, and it was not the change of the pop center that caused it. This comes for a long time. The idea that the pop center is an accumulator of troubled people comes from the disorganization of politics for homeless people,” he added.
During the interview, Kamai said the Acre Public Prosecution Service (MPAC) fulfilled its role by demanding from Rio Branco City Hall to adopt some measures.
“The MPAC is playing its role. When the SADH secretary took over, he made two serious statements: he said there was a lot of ‘trickster’ at the Pop Center and that the place would not distribute more food. The MPAC, not to let the homeless people be even more marginalized, filed a public civil action,” he said.
Finally, Kamai said he considers the manifestation of residents of the Castello Branco neighborhood legitimate, as they are afraid.
See the interview in full:
