Since November 2020, the city of Porto Alegre has signed seven contracts with Pousada Garoa, which had one of its units set on fire in the early hours of this Friday (26). Ten people died in the incident. In total, the contracts total R$9,199,028.46.
All contracts were signed by the Social Assistance and Citizenship Foundation (Fasc), which is linked to Porto Alegre city hall. According to the organization's website, the foundation's objective is to “manage the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) in the municipality of Porto Alegre”.
The first contract with Pousada Garoa was signed on November 6, 2020, worth R$197,964. According to the city hall's Transparency Portal, the object of the contract was the “establishment of accommodation that has conditions for immediate service in the Municipality of Porto Alegre, to serve the Social Assistance and Citizenship Foundation – FASC, to face the social consequences caused due to the new coronavirus pandemic.”
Since then, six more contracts have been signed with Pousada Garoa, all with justification related to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The current contract between the city hall and Pousada Garoa – the only one that is still in force – is worth R$2,705,379.96. It was signed in December 2023 and expires in December this year.
The current contract is the extension of another contract, signed in December 2022 and which expired in December last year, and which had a value of R$3,186,000. This contract determined that the inn would provide 450 places per month.
Justification for hiring
In the document that formalizes the contract, the city hall justified that “we have sought to expand resources and services that will guarantee social protection” for the homeless population.
“One of the challenges is the service network – daytime, overnight and institutional reception spaces – meeting the demand of the homeless population, currently estimated at 2,500 people, as reported in the 2021 Social Development Secretariat’s Street Action Plan. FASC currently has a service network
the homeless population in day service is 280 targets, with overnight spaces in 240 targets and 204 targets in institutional care. Therefore, there is a lack of reception services for this population”, says the document.
“In this way, in order to meet the demand of the most vulnerable population, which suffers social risk, unemployment, difficulties in accessing other public policies, such as the health system, among other psychosocial problems, FASC identifies the urgency of maintaining of vacancies in the Accommodation modality for adults and families for Operation Winter in this capital, an event that takes place historically and annually between the months of June and September, consisting of a series of actions between the services of Special Social Protection, sometimes coordinated between departments, with the aim of preserving and promoting minimum and basic care, offering
protected space for homeless people in the municipality”, he adds.
“In view of the above, it is observed that the timeline regarding reception in a protective space for homeless people needs to be read considering circumstantial aspects and phenomena that trigger the need for greater service coverage in order to mitigate risks and damage to this population, such as
exposure to the elements, or the social, economic and cultural effects of the recent health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a longitudinal implication”, he continues.
The target audience for the action, says the foundation, is made up of “vulnerable populations, primarily families, homeless adults and elderly people and immigrants from the
Municipality of Porto Alegre”.
What the city hall says
In the morning, Porto Alegre city hall confirmed that it has a contract with Pousada Garoa. The Social Assistance and Citizenship Foundation says that there were 30 people in the building that caught fire, 16 of which were homeless people covered by the municipal program.
Mayor Sebastião Melo (MDB) was at the scene of the fire and said that he still does not know if, among the ten dead, there are any beneficiaries of the program.
Asked about the company having a contract with the city hall without having a Firefighters license, the mayor stated that companies that do not meet the requirements are automatically disqualified under the bidding law and that, therefore, he believes that the company presented, at the time, all necessary documents. However, the mayor stated that this will still be checked in the documentation.
A CNN asked the city of Porto Alegre whether the contract with Pousada Garoa will be terminated after the incident, but has not yet received feedback.
Source: CNN Brasil
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