Beja, Portugal, Dec. 4, 2025 (Lusa) - On Friday, Beja City Council will activate a temporary night shelter in this Alentejo city, as part of its Contingency Plan for Homeless People, to ensure that their "safety, well-being and dignity" are ensured.

The shelter will be open daily until 20 March 2026, from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m., at the former Casa do Estudante, owned by Caritas Diocesana de Beja.

In a statement sent to the Lusa news agency, Beja City Council explained that the shelter will open "following the risk assessment and warnings issued by the Municipal Civil Protection Service", taking into account the "adverse weather conditions" that usually occur at this time of year.

The local authority added that the shelter, which is the direct responsibility of the municipality in close collaboration with partners from the Homeless Planning and Intervention Centre (NPISA), "has as its main objective to ensure the safety, well-being and dignity of people who, for various reasons, find themselves without a safe place to sleep".

In this context, "street teams, using an empathetic, preventive and proactive approach, ensure the identification and referral of homeless people, ensuring that they all receive appropriate support," the statement said.

The Beja City Council also stated that "essential goods and services will be provided" at the shelter.

"Conditions that meet immediate basic needs, such as food, hygiene and safe rest, will also be ensured, with the presence of private security and in coordination with the PSP," it said.

At the same time, "this integrated response aims to create a bridge to more stable solutions, promoting referrals to shelter responses managed or protocolled with Social Security at the national level, always with a view to inclusion and rebuilding life paths," the council concluded.

CYMP/ADB // ADB.

Lusa