The Yerevan asylum - home to 1260 homeless people

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, ARMENPRESS: Up to now the asylum intended for the Yerevan homeless has been home to 1260 people. Deputy Head of the Disabled People and Elderly Affairs Department of the Armenian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Anahit Gevorgyan told Armenpress that the asylum is currently intended for 60 people. Previously it was intended for 30, and later – for 50 people. Mrs. Gevorgyan said that the opportunities of the asylum have been widened. “Currently there is no vacant place in the asylum. The number of the applicants is growing especially in winter,” Mrs. Gevorgyan noted.

Deputy Director of the temporary asylum for homeless people Arthur Makaryan noted that different types of services are provided in the asylum – social, psychological, legal. According to Mr. Markosyan, there are many cases when people need documents and the specialists of the asylum try to help them. Homeless people can live in the asylum for 60 days.

Mr. Gevorgyan said if a homeless person is old he/she is hosted in a boarding house, if he/she is capable of working, they try to provide him with a job, if he/she is ill they help him to solve health problems.

“There is only one asylum in Armenia for homeless people,” Mrs. Gevorgyan said. According to her, there is no need to add the number of the asylum. Mr. Gevorgyan noted that suchlike asylum is to be opened in Gyumri as well, for there are numerous homeless people there.