The Department of Social Welfare and Development – National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR) and the Local Government Unit of Quezon City agreed to create a coordinating group to address the incidence of street dwelling along the NIA and BIR roads in the middle of quezon and east avenues of the city.

Through themeeting held on July 10, 2015 at the Quezon City hall, DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman and Field Office NCR Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan presented to Vice Mayor Ma. Josefine “Joy” Belmonte the CCT and Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Homeless Street Families (MCCT-HSF) status of implementation in QC.

In this, Vice Mayor Belmonte also shared the ongoing cleaning operation and monitoring of the LGU along the center island of NIA road to prevent the street dwellers to stay in the said area.

Based on the record of DSWD-NCR, there were 528 registered households of Pantawid Pamilya and 57 MCCT-HSF active beneficiaries in the barangay covered by NIA road wherein, as validated by the LGU, some beneficiaries are staying in the center island because it is cooler to be there than inside their houses while some are vending cooked foods for taxi drivers and others are scavenging.

Regional Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan emphasized during the meeting that the caseworkers and City Links assigned in the area were already instructed to intensify the case management to the beneficiaries along the mentioned road to identify the appropriate and necessary intervention to prevent them from staying in the center island of the road.

Therefore, as agreed, NIA-BIR coordinating group shall compose of the local departments of QC, Pantawid Pamilya Parent Leaders, DSWD-NCR Street Facilitators, City Links, barangay officials while other government agencies will be tapped in the operation such as DILG, PNP and MMDA.

The local departments of QC and DSWD-NCR will convene today, July 15, 2015 at the Quezon City hall for discussion in operationalizing of the group.###