Including homeless families and children in the social protection system: a brief review of international experience and an analysis of data on the Philippine pilot programme

Abstract

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programme (4Ps) is one of the projects subsumed within the Philippine social protection agenda. The 4Ps, under the management of the Department of Social and Welfare and Development (DSWD), has covered over 7 million children belonging to approximately 3 million poor families with homes from the period February 2008 to May 2012. In an effort to extend social protection services to the homeless, the DSWD launched the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer for Homeless (MCCT-HSF) programme in the second half of 2012. The MCCT-HSF, viewed as an extension of the 4Ps, intends to provide immediate relief, support and services to homeless families. It is also designed as a mechanism through which homeless families can transition into the 4Ps. This study serves as a review of social protection programmes that are similar to the MCCT-HSF and as a preliminary analysis of the data gleaned from the pilot implementation of the MCCT-HSF. A review of the social protection programmes for the homeless of other countries suggests that the success of these kinds of programmes is contingent on the development of accurate integrated targeting, monitoring and delivery systems. Moreover, it has been observed that the construction of cost-effective transient housing facilities or temporary shelters, and the provision of personalized psychosocial counselling services are instrumental to the success of homeless protection programmes for the homeless. The data from the MCCT-HSF pilot implementation indicate that homeless families found in Metro Manila originate from poor regions that are close to the National Capital Region. The data set also reveals that most of the homeless included in the pilot implementation attained only an elementary-level education. A considerable proportion of the homeless is either unemployed or employed in the informal sector.

Keywords:

• homeless street families
• homeless street children
• social protection
• conditional cash transfer
• psychosocial support
• temporary shelters

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mari Chrys Pablo for her assistance on the initial research for this study and colleagues in the Department for Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for sharing their inputs. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. The views contained in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Institute of Management, DSWD and UNICEF.

Notes

1. National Capital Region is also referred as Metro Manila. Luzon Island is composed of NCR, CAR, Region I, Region II, Region III, Region IV-A, Region IV-B and Region V. Visayas Island is comprised of Region VI, Region VII and Region VIII, while Mindanao is composed of Region IX, Region X, Region XI, Region XII, CARAGA and ARMM.

2. South Africa’s National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is a policy document covering the special needs of the homeless, racially based inequalities in access to and quality of shelters, as well as backlogs in provision of formal shelters to those in need. The Housing Act (Act no. 107) of 1997 contains provisions promoting the establishment of socially and economically viable communities, as well as suitable living conditions in order to combat the emergence of slums. The Children’s Act, administered by the DSD, lists the establishment of sound structures as a suitable intervention to enhance the well-being of children (see Naidoo 2010).

3. The scheme aimed to furnish temporary shelter to the homeless at a cost of Rs. 20,000 per capita (approximately 320 UD), with half subsidized by the central government and the remaining half paid for by contribution from implanting agencies availing of HUDCO loans (Kanth 2001).

⁴. This figure refers to the total homeless population in cities with over one hundred thousand residents identified by the Census 2011 (NAC 2012). The Census 2001 identified a figure of 13 million ‘homeless households’, with each household accounting for 5–6 individuals (Kanth, 2001).