The Ministry of Construction has proposed that the government build centres for the elderly homeless in 10 provinces.
A homeless elder Vietnam now has the fastest aging population among the Asian countries. Poverty reduction programmes have helped to reduce the number of homeless people. However, because it requires contributions to the system to enjoy the benefits, homeless elders find it difficult to receive benefits from current policies.
According to the Ministry of Construction, only about 3,500 out of the total 100,000 elderly homeless people have been moved to social protection centres. Homeless people account for 1.15% of the elderly population (who aged over 60 years old). Moreover, only 180 out of 432 centres have taken in elderly people along or disabled and disadvantaged children. Also, only 15 centres specialise in taking care of older people. For this reason, a large number of these centres cannot fully care for elders.
The ministry then proposed three separate modules in order to solve this problem, including public centres, private centres and community centres for elderly people.
Public centres would give full support to elders who are entitled to social policies, unable to take care of themselves or suffer from financial difficulties. Meanwhile, government will support private centres with preferential tax policies or land-use rights. These centres would take care of the elderly who have a solid financial background but need help with their daily activities and health issues.
The community centres would be managed by the homeless elders who live together. The government would give some financial support to such establishments for their building and management. They would also accept contributions from donors.
The ministry has asked to commence pilot programmes in 10 provinces with a high number of elderly homeless, such as Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang and Thanh Hoa. The estimated cost for each center is about VND12 billion. This investment will be contributed by the state and other organisations. According to the schedule, all construction will be finished by the third quarter of 2015.
Đăng ký: VietNam News