Among the several dozen team members, there were representatives of non-governmental organisations, City Hall units, the University of Lodz and people experiencing homelessness themselves – experts by experience.
The strategy is a response to the needs and obstacles that people experiencing homelessness encounter on their way out of homelessness. The proposals contained therein constitute a coherent, comprehensive idea of systemic changes through deinstitutionalisation, allowing for a real and lasting coming out of homelessness and ending it, instead of more or less efficient management of the problem
– says Dr Małgorzata Kostrzyńska, Vice-President at the Council for Solving the Problem of Homelessness.
Dr Małgorzata Kostrzyńska is a social educator, art therapist (Polski Instytut Ericksonowski in Lodz), member of the University of Lodz Center of Social Innovations. She was a member of Łódzkie Partnerstwo w sytuacji Wykluczenia i Bezdomności [Help providing Partnership in cases of Exclusion and Homelessness based in Lodz]. For over a dozen years she has been working with people experiencing homelessness, combining participatory research with supportive activities, accompanying them in their everyday lives. She conducted several years of ethnographic research on the streets of the city, with men in crisis of homelessness and remaining outside the social welfare system, focusing on obstacles to their social inclusion (2005 – 2008). She has cooperated with Stowarzyszenie Ludzi Bezdomnych (Association of Homeless People). She has been cooperating with non-governmental organisations and representatives of public institutions for years. Her research interests focus on homelessness, street work, social inclusion and exclusion, stigmatisation, and the social welfare system.
The creation and adoption of the Strategy for Solving the Problem of Homelessness in Lodz for 2024-2030 by the City Council is a great satisfaction for me, a success of the Council for Solving the Problem of Homelessness, where I am the Vice-President, and a real chance to improve the situation of people experiencing homelessness in Lodz
– concludes Dr Małgorzata Kostrzyńska.
Source: University of Lodz, Lodz City Council
Edit: Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz