Centar Municipality clears Park of the Journalists and urges ministry to resolve homeless status

Centar Municipality services, together with the public utility company POC and the police, carried out another operation today to remove tents and evict homeless people who had been using the Park of the Journalists as an improvised shelter opposite the Nova Makedonija building.

Municipal officials said they acted after repeated complaints from residents of nearby buildings about strong odours and large amounts of waste at the site, which over the years has frequently served as a shelter for many homeless people.

"We are responding yet again at this location, always at the request of citizens. We clean the site repeatedly, but homeless people constantly return and re-occupy the park. Such occurrences will not be tolerated in Centar. We will act whenever public order, the safety and hygiene of citizens are disturbed. Additionally, we appeal to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy to urgently get involved in resolving the status of these people so that there are no more such incidents," said the mayor of Centar Municipality, Goran Gerasimovski.

Site cleared and plans for follow-up

After the operation the municipality said the Park of the Journalists would be fully cleared and made available again for public use. This is the second clearance of the same location within a year.

At the beginning of August last year the municipality carried out a similar action following resident complaints and reports of frequent fights among people living in tents, including a tent close to a children's playground that had become surrounded by waste and unsuitable living conditions.

The problem of public spaces being used as shelters is not limited to this park. Centar officials said they have also removed homeless people from two abandoned properties on Tetovska Street 20 in Novo Maalo and on Vladimir Polezhinovski Street 7, near the TC "Bunjakovec" shopping centre. At those sites officials found both adults and minors and activated social services.

Near the Park of the Journalists there is also the long-abandoned former boarding house "Bianko" opposite the Catholic church, which has for years been used as a shelter. The municipality stressed that the property is owned by the City of Skopje and thus falls under the city's responsibility. City inspectors who visited that site previously reported finding several minors and said they had sent a letter to the Center for Social Work Skopje to take action.

Photo: Opshtina Centar