Intersectoral meeting on housing & homelessness set for next week

Keilyn Vale Lassalle, senior officer at the Moriviví Coordinating Committee

By THE STAR STAFF

The Moriviví Coordinating Committee (MCC) announced Tuesday that the First Intersectoral Meeting on Housing and Homelessness will be held next Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino Resort.

The unprecedented initiative will bring together mayors, third-sector organizations, faith-based entities, healthcare providers, academic institutions, and central government agencies to develop a joint strategy for the prevention and eradication of homelessness in Puerto Rico.

The MCC is a third-sector collective comprising 34 housing and service projects that serve homeless individuals and families in 54 municipalities, including Vieques and Culebra. The organization emphasizes that while housing and support services have historically been concentrated in the metropolitan area, the need is equally pressing throughout the rest of the island, where many communities face significant service gaps.

The meeting seeks to mark a starting point for profound transformation: moving from managing homelessness to preventing and sustainably reducing it. The initiative proposes strengthening municipal coordination with all its components -- citizen services, housing offices, municipal health services and municipal police -- along with community organizations, faith-based entities, academia and healthcare providers. The goal: to create local systems capable of responding in an integrated manner, utilizing real-time data, and ensuring that every homeless person can be quickly linked to housing and support services.

“This event is a call to coordinate resources, expand capacities, and strengthen collective planning to improve access to housing and essential services in the 54 municipalities we serve,” said Keilyn Vale Lassalle, senior officer at MCC. “Our goal is to bring together all sectors to design collaborative, informed, and effective responses.”

The MCC urged community organizations, municipalities, and the public and private sectors to participate in the event, which is free of charge but requires prior registration (at https://bit.ly/EncuentroIntersectorialSinhogarismo) on or before this Friday.